Destined
by Justright
Summary: This is my idea of what might follow the end of last season. Using hints and sometimes dropped ideas from the show, I composed this alternate universe of a world with Beasts. Hope you enjoy!
1. Chapter 1

DESTINED

A young doe was gingerly approaching a bush of tender leaves, easy to reach as it stood alone near a large wall. The temptation of the soft leaves and branches was irresistible to a hungry deer. However the closer it got to its prize the more hesitant it became, feeling exposed, its large alert eyes darting this way and that, searching for the cause of its unease but seemingly unable to find it. When he was only a few steps from the bush, the doe looked up the tall wall that stood behind it, dark and impregnable. A humming sound was now audible, provoking a strong caution in the deer, along with a nervous twitching that travelled throughout its delicate body. It took a few more tentative steps toward the bush, still alert to anything that could threaten it but it couldn't see or sense any real threat so it began tearing at the bush for its tender offerings. Almost immediately, it stopped, alerted by a loud banging sound and the sudden silence that followed, as the humming that had been clearly there only seconds before was now gone. The twitching, which had animated the deer so far, transformed suddenly in alert stiffness as the doe looked sideways and up, searching the semi-darkness of this late evening. And up there at the edge of the dark wall and the firmament, two yellow orbs shone brightly, staring directly down at the deer. Another growl, louder this time preceded the sudden attack. The deer didn't stand a chance as a large shape jumped from the wall and threw it off its gracile legs, immediately biting and tearing a large chunk of its throat. The doe struggled feebly for a few more seconds but the life that had beaten so strong in its chest only moments earlier was now flowing out of him inexorably.

After its hunger was momentarily satiated, the predator lifted its head with its mouth opened and filled with serrated teeth, now bloodied by its kill. It hooted like some ape, as if he was announcing its kill to the forests inhabitants. It then got up to its full height, standing on two legs, its body mostly bare but for what in the dark might've passed for fur on its legs but really were pants. Sinuous muscles rippled through its ample chest. The guttural hooting was getting louder and, if anything, more aggressive but was silenced in an instant by a strident whistling coming from behind the wall.

"Where did he go," someone could be heard shouting next, with evident anxiety.

"He's got to be on the grounds. Keep searching," another voice answered loudly with an obvious accent of authority. Moments later, the owner of the first voice called worriedly, "The power is out on the fence…

"That's not possible. He can't have broken into the locker…Go check it and wake the others, we've got to find him and fast."

The predator seemed to hesitate, staring in turn at the wall before him and the field that lay beyond. He slowly laid five clawed fingered hands on the wall, almost as if he was preparing to dig in and climb it back up but even as he was doing so, the claws that had been so prominent began to recede and the clawed hands became human ones, quite unable to get a purchase on the slick wall. Its face, that had sported a short snout above the saw-toothed mouth flattened quickly into a human face, one that expressed a little confusion and anxiety. What had been a violent predator only moments earlier was now a man with a classically handsome face and a shock of dark hair, now bloodied. The young man looked down at himself, apparently revolted at seeing the blood and gore all over his body. Spotting the deer at his feet, a look of perplexity replaced the revulsion.

More people calling from behind the tall wall diverted his attention from the macabre spectacle and he almost seemed about to answer them. The words caught in his throat however and instead, he turned towards the field and started running.

Chapter I

"I'm telling you, she's gonna go ballistic if we're not there on time," said Vincent Keller in his deep gravelly voice. Vincent was tall and athletic and quite handsome, if somewhat rugged and full of edges. At the moment his muscular form was fitted into a tuxedo which his friend told him made him look like a dashing James Bond. If the compliment had come from anyone else Vincent would probably have protested or simply shied away from it but he knew J.T. and his good humoured exaggerations. They had known each other forever and kept almost nothing from each other, more like brothers than friends. He and J.T. were at the former gentlemen's club which was still serving as J.T.'s temporary lodgings after they had to blow up their hiding place in a chemical plant a while back, and Vincent was already by the door, waiting with more than a little hint of impatience for his friend to come along.

"Look here, it's not my fault she didn't give us more warning. What was the big emergency anyway?" J.T. was working on the knot of his tie, obviously uncomfortable in his own suit.

"You know her; she's a spur of the moment type of girl."

"You can say that. From what I understand, only a few months ago she was guy hopping like there's no tomorrow and now she's in a hurry to get hitched…she pregnant?"

"J.T.!" Vincent exclaimed irritably. "First of all, don't you go and ask something like that when we see her or Catherine'll have your hide and mine. Also, it matters a lot to Catherine that I got along with Heather and being on time for her wedding is a big part of that."

"Alright, alright. It's just…"

Vincent's intensely attentive eyes turned to J.T. Forbes as he spoke, "I can't believe you're still worrying about Tess. She was devastated when she thought you were dying."

"I know, I know…but going to a wedding with her so soon…" J.T. replied with a hint of uncertainty. Before the attack by Gabriel a few weeks ago, his relationship with Tess had been up and down to say the least. For his part, he knew how he felt about her without a doubt. However, ever since his release from the hospital, he had been wondering if all the attention she showered upon him wasn't more of a reaction to his near death experience than genuine love. This reception was their first official date since the incident and although he felt better than ever physically, he was nervous not only because of his lingering doubts about Tess's feeling but also about whatever the "agency", as they had come to call it, had done to him. "I wasn't really prepared to go out just yet. I haven't even really begun to understand what those guys did to me… what if?"

"If you're worried about growing whiskers or something, we'll deal with that," Vincent answered with more than a little humour.

"Joke all you want about me, but we don't know jack about this "agency" and what they really want. After Muirfield, one would think you'd be a little more circumspect about people like them."

"I am, trust me," Vincent replied more seriously. "But right now, I'm more worried about Heather and Catherine's reactions if we don't get there on time."

"Never figured you for whipped," J.T. quipped, even as he finished tying the knot on his tie and started toward the door.

"Careful man, one never knows when I might get tired of your taunts," Vincent faked threatened his friend, who simply smiled as he headed out the door.

Catherine Chandler, a petite brunette with delicate features, often underestimated by her peers in the police force because of her beauty, was now pensively looking out from the porch of her father's summer house. Her biological father was a former FBI agent, also associated with Muirfield, a shady agency who had been the cause of so much misery in the past. He was now imprisoned for that particular indiscretion along with the kidnapping and subsequent murder of a prominent business man slash gangster and the attempted murder of that man's daughter almost a year ago. Many more crimes could have been added to his tally but the very nature of those he ordered murdered precluded that. Sometimes Catherine had moments where she questioned what she did in relation to those events, particularly for the fact that she ended up covering for the man who carried out those killings. However she knew deep down that Vincent wasn't really to blame for them. No more, in fact, than most of those treated with the beast serum, in truth, serums. The last batch concocted by Muirfield and that her father had used on Vincent had actually wiped his memory clean and basically transformed him into a military killing machine until his memories and his love for Catherine had brought Vincent back from the brink. From where she stood she could see the gazebo where she'd witnessed Vincent kissing another woman, a beast herself, right after he threatened her father and she remembered vividly the pain it had caused her. At the time she had not quite understood the sudden and utter aggressive nature of his attack on her father but soon afterward she'd found out her father had been the one who kidnapped Vincent in the first place. By then, however, the damage had been done and it took a lot for Vincent and her to find their way back together.

The only thing that mitigated those unpleasant memories was the fact that Vincent was totally committed to her now and these events and their subsequent consequences were a thing of the past. Now almost a year later and even though her relationship with her biological father was still very strained, she was again at his summer house, this time as its new owner. In a grand gesture of sorts, her father had gifted the country mansion to her, stating that it was an act of contrition on his part and that he hoped she would accept it as proof that he had turned the page on his formerly relentless pursuit of Vincent. He'd told her he hoped the house could be a haven for them to get away from the bustle of the city. Catherine was still uneasy with anything coming from her father but she had to admit that the idea of such a great place they could call their own held a certain appeal.

"I can't believe how great this place is," Heather enthusiastically exclaimed, even as she was coming out of the French doors. She was wearing a strapless white wedding dress, much simpler than the one she'd been wearing the day of her kidnapping. Then she had planned a big wedding back in Florida with all of their friends present but what happened had changed Heather's perspective somewhat and the need for a big celebration had been replaced by the simple happiness of still being alive and having close friends and a man she loved. "Your father must be loaded…" she added just a little hesitantly. It wasn't that long ago that the girls had found out they weren't born from the same father. Even so, the only father that both girls had known all their lives was really the one they considered family and they both still mourned his passage.

"Must have paid very well to be on Muirfield's payroll," Catherine replied sarcastically.

"Come on, Cat, at least he's trying to do something for you."

"I guess so…" Catherine couldn't hide her uneasiness at the subject but for Heather's sake, she decided to put up a good front. "At least it's gonna be perfect for the wedding. I'm glad I could do that for you."

"Matthew is still in awe of the house," Heather rallied, smiling happily at the thought of her fiancée. Catherine had only met him a couple days ago when they arrived and announced that they planned to get married during their stay in New York. At first, they had only meant for a quickie wedding with a judge of the peace and their close family present but when Catherine suggested the mansion she'd recently received as a gift, Heather and Matthew had gushed effusively at her generosity and even more so when they saw the place. Her soon to be brother in law was pretty much everything she had expected: good looking, longish blond curly hair, blue eyes and athletic. He had also struck her as very gentle and open. In short, she was determined to silence any lingering doubts she still harboured about her sister's choice, mostly because she thought it had more to do with her distrusting nature than any fault the man might have. According to him like Catherine and Heather, Matthew had lost his parents but in his case he was very young when it happened and he barely remembered them. He had mentioned a brother but he hadn't seen him in years apparently. That was the main reason they had elected to get married in New York rather than back in Florida as they wanted to at least have Heather's family present, meaning Catherine and her friends, who Heather now considered her friends as well. In a way, Heather had also wanted to put to rest the fear that was still occasionally choking her at the memory of her kidnapping and near death only a couple months earlier. The fact that those who did her harm were now dead and buried helped alleviate most of those fears but she thought it would be cathartic to do something that would make her the happiest in the city where it all happened in order to put those memories resolutely behind her. And also, she knew that Catherine was not ready to leave her friends behind even for a few days.

There was still too much uncertainty for her to feel confident that she and Vincent's past troubles were in fact in the past. Not to mention some problems with Vincent's friend that Catherine had vaguely referred to. By now, Heather knew better than to pry. Catherine's issues were of an extraordinary nature lately and, for once, Heather felt she'd been shocked enough for the time being. She'd only asked of Catherine that she gave her assurance that none of those problems were an immediate danger to Catherine herself and when her sister had reassured her on that point Heather chose to believe her. "Now if that boyfriend of yours could get here though," Heather started with a hint of irritation. "Everything is ready."

"I'm sure they'll be here any moment now," Catherine said conciliatorily. Even as she spoke, J.T.'s powder blue hatch back turned into the driveway and Catherine couldn't help a little sigh of relief at seeing Vincent and J.T. coming up the driveway. Every time they were apart, she wondered if something would happen to Vincent. Their relationship was such that every day seemed to be a gift. At the same time she longed to feel like nothing could come and shatter their happiness. In point of fact, watching her sister and her fiancée had honed that desire all the more. Catherine had to admit that she was a little jealous of their carefree relationship. At the same time, she also knew that no matter what, she wouldn't trade what she had with Vincent for anything. The swelling of emotion she still felt every time she was with him was unlike anything she'd ever felt for anyone before. And what was more, the way he looked at her even now coming up the stairs, she knew in her heart he felt the same way. It was only the presence of her sister and J.T. that kept her from throwing herself in his arms right then and there. As it was, she nestled herself against him as he wrapped his arms around her. "Hey," he simply said.

"Where were you," Heather inquired with her usual directness.

"So sorry," J.T. answered, "traffic you know…"

"Well, let's not lose any more time," Heather replied impatiently, already heading back into the house without waiting for them.

"Well," J.T. said to no one in particular, "wedded bliss hasn't changed her in the least."

"J.T. play nice," Vincent cautioned even though deep down he had to agree. In the past he had been grilled by Heather and knew the feeling. At the same time he shrugged in protest of his own innocence in the matter when he noticed Catherine's disapproving look. He was certain they were in for a lecture but just then Tess came out of the house and she resolutely grabbed J.T.'s arm, pulling him inside before he had time to protest.

Catherine grabbed Vincent's hand with the obvious intent to follow them in but she felt a resistance and stopped to look back at Vincent, who was simply leaning back against the ramp of the porch, smiling softly. "Hey," she protested mildly, "you heard Heather, it's time." As she said so she gripped his hand a little tighter, and pulled on him but it was as if he was melded to the porch and he didn't budge an inch. Instead, the next moment she found herself pulled back against him forcefully and she didn't protest anymore.

"I'm sure they can wait a little longer," Vincent whispered right against her lips before kissing her passionately. As he pulled away, Catherine could still feel the heat of desire coursing through her, her heart racing like the first time. "So," Vincent said then, the same half-smile still lingering on his lips, "are we going in?" Even without special senses, Catherine could tell, could always tell really, that he felt the same way she did right then. Almost two years into their whirlwind relationship they were still so into each other, sometimes it scared her a little. But then, just looking into his adoring eyes was enough for her to set that fear aside once more.

"I'm not the one who misbehaved," she playfully reproached.

"Right, and that's all on me I'm sure," Vincent replied just as playfully. Slightly more seriously, he looked her over appreciatively, "You look stunning, Miss Chandler."

"Thank you," she said playfully, "And you don't look too shabby yourself Mr. Keller."

"I better…this suit is making me itch all over but I guess it's all for Heather so…"

"Yes for Heather," Catherine replied pensively as she looked back towards the French doors. "You think we…"

"Anything you want, Catherine. I don't see any reason we couldn't," Vincent reassured her, knowing her concerns maybe better than she did herself.

"You know it's only been two weeks…"

"Yes," he smiled reassuringly, "two weeks where we didn't have to hide, run, face death, fight…." Just then however Vincent interrupted himself, his expression changing minutely, but enough so that Catherine recognized the signs for having seen them too often.

"What is it?" she questioned anxiously.

Vincent hesitated another few seconds but then he shrugged dismissively. "It's nothing, I just thought I sensed something, but I'm sure it was nothing, probably just some animal, it's already gone…"

"You're sure?" Catherine asked, only half-reassured by his denial.

"Yeah really, there's nothing, I'm sure it's probably the fact that we've been so carefree lately. It's just hard to believe nothing is coming for us. Also might have to do with being back here…."

"If you don't want us to stay here, we can just go back after the ceremony," Catherine said quickly. "I know the place doesn't hold too many good memories for us…"

"Well," Vincent suddenly smiled, "I seem to remember something kinda nice about it."

The memory of their tryst just before all had gone wrong last year still brought a smile to Catherine's lips as well. However she turned serious again as the rest of their stay was still too fresh in her memory. Catherine ran her fingers tenderly down his cheek, "if you're sure…"

"Of course," Vincent replied, also remembering the less pleasant episode but deciding that it was for another discussion. "Let's go before Heather really gets mad," he joked just a little awkwardly. This time, he took Catherine's hand and led them inside.

At the edge of a nearby wooded area a pale shape darted from one tree to the next and then seemingly vanished.

Inside the den, which had been temporarily repurposed as a wedding chapel by Heather with her usual abandon, everyone was obviously waiting for them, the look of impatience on Heather's face more eloquent than any words. Truthfully, the pastor who'd agreed to marry her and Matthew on such short notice had told them that he could only give them about an hour of his time and they'd already wasted 30 minutes of that. Not that the ceremony lasted very long, as they dispensed with most of the rituals to get to the heart of the matter faster. Heather and Matthew were obviously very emotional and their happiness when the pastor declared they should kiss at last was palpable. Catherine couldn't hold back a few tears of joy for her sister but also at her sadness that neither of their parents were here to see this. Vincent's hand tightened on hers, telling her that he most likely sensed how she felt, as he always did, but he said nothing. Catherine and the others present were just standing up to applaud the newlywed when she suddenly felt herself pulled rudely to the side, and barely had time to register the change in Vincent before a loud growl filled the den and made her blood run cold. Given what had transpired recently, her first thought went to J.T. and she turned from Vincent just long enough to confirm that he was still there and more importantly himself. The look of bewilderment and obvious fear on his and Tess's face told her all she needed to know about it. Then Vincent blurred in front of her and that's when she saw what had caused his agitation. A large beast stood in the doorway, drooling from his open maw, his eyes glowing yellow in the half light of the den. It was obviously preparing to attack just as Vincent collided violently with him and they both stumbled toward the French doors, shattering them in the process. It had all happened so suddenly that only Heather's screaming brought Catherine back to the present circumstance.

Reluctantly leaving Vincent to the matter of the new beast, she turned towards the dais and the newlyweds. Fortunately, it seemed that the pastor had passed out and probably could be convinced he'd imagined most of it. Heather was obviously terrified, no doubt all of her fears from before were coming back to her at once. The sight broke Catherine's heart but what really shocked her was Matthew's reaction. Alarm bells started ringing anew in her mind when she saw him push Heather out of his way and run out the door behind the two fighting beasts. As much as she wanted to go after him right away, a thought occurred to her. "J.T., the collar?"

"In the car," he answered shortly, already running out towards the car through the shattered French doors. Catherine followed him, all the while staring at the beasts fighting and Heather's now husband staring helplessly just out of range. J.T. was fumbling with the glove box nervously. "Hurry up," Catherine urged as she saw that the new beast was overpowering Vincent. Blood was already running from his left side and her heart sank at the thought that it could all end here, just when they thought this was all behind them.

"There," J.T. said as he pushed the collar into her waiting hand and she started running towards the combatants, oblivious of her own safety. Vincent had fallen to the ground and the other beast was now straddling him, his clawed hand raised, about to strike a deadly blow when a scream from Matthew seemed to stop him momentarily. "Jeremy, NO!" The newcomer looked up with unfocused eyes, the rage in them fighting with a hint of recognition. Catherine didn't wait for the beast to make up his mind and she used his hesitation to get to him and tie the collar with the green gem around his neck. The result was satisfyingly rapid and the beast that Vincent had been fighting quickly reverted to a human shape, albeit, a dirty and dishevelled one wearing only torn pants and nothing else. Seeing that his opponent was now subdued, Vincent pushed away the hand that had been about to strike him and he shoved the man off of him rudely before getting up on unsteady legs, now feeling the full hurt of the wound at his side. "Vincent," Catherine exclaimed when she saw him collapse after only a few steps holding his side where three deep gashes could be seen bleeding profusely through the shredded suit and shirt. She and J.T. got to him at the same time, turning him on his side, and staring in horror at the wounds. "It's ok, Catherine," Vincent managed to tell her in spite of his evident pain. "We need to get you to a hospital," Catherine exclaimed.

"No hospital, Catherine, please; I don't think this is worth all the questioning. J.T. can patch me up."

Catherine hesitated. She was torn between her fear for Vincent's life and their safety once more.

"I have the med kit in the car," J.T. called even as he ran towards the trunk and opened it quickly. He came back and was nervously drawing out supplies while Catherine fearfully tore the rest of the shirt opened. As J.T. began cleaning the wound, Catherine crouched by Vincent's side, his head resting on her thighs and through his touch she had the strangest sensation that she was sharing his pain, as if she'd taken some of the burden. She quickly dismissed it as a psychological reaction however. "I really thought we were passed this," she said out loud. But even as she did, Catherine already understood that they could never be completely free or like other people. At the same time, she also realized that she'd accepted all of it as a matter of fact. All of her lingering doubts about the relationship between Vincent and her were truly in the past. Losing him was simply out of the question.

Even as this simple realization occurred to Catherine, she caught sight of the other two men still on the lawn with them and the seriousness of the situation came into clear focus for her. Vincent getting hurt this bad had made her forget all about what caused it but seeing the now subdued man who attacked him, Catherine's mind was awash with questions. The man in question was barely recognizable as human; the little of him she saw was covered with blood and dirt. At the moment he was focused on Heather's new husband and this one was hesitantly walking toward him, seemingly animated with the same concern she and J.T. felt for Vincent.

Before he could reach him however, the man Matthew had called Jeremy fell face first to the ground, a tranquiliser dart sticking out of his neck. Catherine turned towards the house and spied Tess still holding the gun she'd shot the man with. "Don't worry about this guy," Tess called haltingly. This seemed to spur Matthew into action as he got to the fallen man and knelt by him with a worried expression that finally hit home with Catherine.

"It's not possible," she uttered dejectedly under her breath, "can't be this bad lucked…"

"What the hell are you talking about Cat," J.T. questioned without looking up from the task at hand. He'd injected a numbing agent already and was preparing to close the deepest wound. Instead of answering his question, she countered, "are you sure you know what you're doing?"

"Believe me I'm getting good at it. It's not like I didn't get to practice this a lot." J.T. replied, obviously nervous in spite of his assurance to the contrary.

"He's doing fine," Vincent interjected breathily. "Now what's this bad luck business?"

"This beast, he wasn't here for you…"

"What do you mean?" J.T. asked before Vincent could.

"I mean look at them," Catherine indicated the two men across from them on the manicured lawn that had been so pristine only moments before.

The three of them now turned their attention in the direction Catherine indicated and saw Heather's new husband fussing over the collared beast. It was Heather herself however that confirmed what Catherine intimated to them as she came out of the house behind Tess, took it all in and exclaimed vehemently, "No no no no no, that can't be. I'm not a part of that. Matthew, you're not part of that! Please tell me you don't have anything to do with this!"

Matthew finally reacted by turning pleading eyes toward his new wife. "I'm sure my brother didn't mean for it to go this far," he insisted, seemingly more to convince himself than anyone else.

Heather simply stared at him with a horrified expression for what seemed like an eternity. But then she turned her back to all of them and ran back inside. Catherine would've gone after her but too much was going on at once. "Tess," she simply asked and her partner quickly came to them, handed her the trank gun and ran back towards the house and Heather.

Meanwhile Matthew stared at the doors Heather and Tess just went through with a mortified expression but he didn't leave either. Instead he managed to regain some countenance and turned to Catherine, Vincent and J.T. "I swear he doesn't normally attack people unprovoked."

J.T. who had just put in the last stitch now angrily faced the groom. "Tell that to my friend here!"

"I'll be fine," Vincent reassured J.T. while grabbing his arm and applying just enough pressure to stop him from getting up and in Matthew's face. "Maybe it was my fault."

"What's that? Falling on your sword week and I didn't get the memo? It's a beast and you went after him..." J.T.'s voice trailed as he realized what he was saying. "You know what I meant..."

"Don't worry about it J.T." The hurt look on his friend's face told J.T. that he'd understood the implication of his earlier comment all too well however.

Catherine interrupted them. "What did you mean it might be your fault?"

"I think he was only here for his brother but when I sensed him I reacted on instinct." When he saw the incredulous looks on his friends faces Vincent added, "when I was fighting him I..." he stopped and turned pleading eyes toward Catherine, which immediately made her nervous. Directly to her he continued apologetically, "I lost control..."

Catherine visibly struggled with this admission, knowing how much it cost him; but given the circumstances she chose to deal with that later. In the past Vincent's lack of control had almost been a deal breaker between them and she really hoped this had only been a onetime thing. After all, the situation was definitely extraordinary. In fact she still couldn't wrap her mind around what happened just yet. Right then she had a more pressing concern. "Can you move," she asked Vincent, now staring at the other beast with renewed worry. "Yes, I'm gonna be ok," Vincent replied as he slowly got up supported by both Catherine and J.T. His winces of pain were painting a different story, but he'd obviously understood what Catherine's intentions were. "J.T. we're gonna put him in your car alright?" Vincent indicated the fallen man as he spoke. J.T. seemed about to protest but then thought better of it. "Dungeon?"

"Safest thing to do right now… Catherine, we'll be fine. You should go to your sister now and meet us there later."

"I don't think you should be around him," Catherine protested. "We both know you don't heal as well as you used to, but it's not..." Catherine hesitated still, holding his face tenderly while searching his eyes for reassurance. Vincent bent toward her and lightly kissed her. "Nothing is gonna happen, Catherine. We'll leave the collar on him and trank him again if necessary."

"But what if you lose control again," Catherine insisted, lowering her voice so only Vincent could hear.

"I won't ok," Vincent replied just a tad testily. Catherine's crestfallen expression mollified him however. "Look, J.T. has the trank gun and besides with the gem in proximity..."

Catherine held his gaze for a moment, and all she saw in his eyes was the same deep affection and desire she always could see in them. Right then however she was also very concerned about his health. "What if none of that works? You're in no shape to fight."

Vincent avoided answering her by turning to J.T. and he saw his friend already heading for the sleeping man. "Let me help you" he said to him, taking a step in their direction. However Vincent had to stop to catch his breath even from this little effort. J.T. saw it and waved him off. "No way! You're not gonna undo my handiwork big guy. I'll try to get this Matthew to help. I'm guessing he won't let us grab his...still can't get my head around that one...his brother and stay behind."

"Fine by me," Vincent replied, grateful to his friend for understanding he didn't want to show weakness in front of Catherine. Eyeing the groom suspiciously, he added "I wouldn't leave him here either. I think he's got a few things to answer for."

Catherine stared at him thoughtfully at that but refrained from commenting. She truly wanted to believe she could trust him not to hurt Matthew; not on purpose anyway.

Surprisingly, Matthew didn't object to J.T.'s request, acting almost unfazed by all that transpired. Truthfully, he looked shaken up but didn't even question Vincent beasting out or the collar. It was as if he'd seen it all before and the only thing that really seemed to bother him was that the collared man at his feet was still unconscious. "Where are we going," was all he asked before helping J.T. lift his brother off the ground and drag him to the back of J.T.'s car, where they set him up with a blanket under his head, curled slightly to fit behind the back seat of the roomy hatchback.

"We have a safe place in town," was all J.T. would tell him and Matthew took it in without comments. He simply climbed into the back seat of the car to keep an eye on his brother. J.T. and Vincent exchanged a somewhat suspicious look at the cavalier way Matthew reacted to it all but they reached a silent agreement to deal with it later. J.T. took the driver's seat while Vincent returned his attention to Catherine.

"We'll make sure he's secured in the dungeon and then see what we can learn from Matthew."

"I'll meet you there as soon as I can," Catherine assured him. "But now, I've got to go deal with Heather and the pastor. This is yet another mess," Catherine added dejectedly.

"You don't have to do this alone, Catherine. I can talk to Heather if you want…"

"No, that's my job and besides, I'm not sure she'd be very receptive right now," Catherine replied even as she took his face in her hands. "But don't go thinking that it was your fault alright?" she added tenderly.

Vincent pulled her toward him but as he did so a stabbing pain in his side caused him to wince and almost jump back.

"This looks worse than you let on," Catherine worriedly said as she noticed that blood was seeping through the bandage. "You should really go to a hospital."

"I told you I'd be fine. Don't worry about me. Go see Heather alright?" Vincent insisted.

"Alright but we'll talk about this again when I get to the dungeon."

Vincent simply kissed her on the lips and lingered a moment longer, an amused smile forming unbidden on his. "We really do lead a charmed life, what with dates in dungeons and all". Catherine couldn't help but smile as well at this humorous take on the situation. Vincent then went to take his seat in the car. Catherine knew from his unsteady gait that he was hurting and she felt a deep anxiety at letting him go without her but she knew that she needed to damage control this situation before it went too far. She watched the car until it was out of sight and then went inside, seeking Heather. First, though, she stopped in the den where she found Tess dealing with the Pastor who'd woken up and wasn't very receptive to her explanations.

"I don't know what you thought you saw, sir."

"I saw a beast, a monster coming into the house!" The Pastor exclaimed excitedly. His demeanour indicated high agitation, understandably, but they needed to deflect him at all cost. Catherine was about to attempt it but Tess beat her to it. "Look sir, I don't know what you think you saw but I can assure you, it was no monster. Granted, it was rather frightening…A bear got in the house… but fortunately, we scared it away."

"That was no bear! I know what I saw!" The Pastor was getting more agitated by the moment.

Catherine tried in turn, "we all saw the bear, sir. Maybe when you passed out, your mind played tricks on you…"

The Pastor turned incredulous eyes towards her but after a few seconds he seemed to calm down somewhat, obviously trying to reconcile what he saw to what he was told happened. "Maybe…" he began hesitantly. "I don't know anymore."

"Do you need us to call for a doctor or someone to pick you up maybe," Catherine immediately replied, hoping he wouldn't start doubting them again.

"I…I don't think I need medical help but…I'll call a friend myself. I just…"

"Seriously sir, it's all alright. The bear ran off and no one was hurt," Catherine added, wincing inwardly at yet another lie in the name of beasts. This one was particularly painful to her since she was basically calling a man of the cloth a liar, but it couldn't be helped. "Now if you're sure you'll be ok, I have to go see my sister…"

"Of course, of course," the pastor acquiesced a little distractedly, still staring at the destroyed French doors in bewilderment. He then seemed to shake off some remnant of doubt and turned to Catherine with a solicitous expression. "Obviously, your sister and her new husband must be devastated. I hope they'll be ok."

"Don't worry, they're strong and they have a happy life ahead of them. Thank you so much for your understanding," Catherine added before giving Tess a knowing look and heading upstairs towards Heather's room.

The door to the room was locked but Catherine could hear her sister crying softly inside. "Heather?" She called to her.

"I want to be left alone," came the immediate answer, suggesting that Heather had heard her coming up.

"Come on Heather, we need to talk about this."

"Yeah...? And what's that gonna help? You're gonna tell me a beast didn't just crash my wedding? Oh and that my fiancé apparently knows about them? Even though I've never talked to him about any of this?" Each sentence was spoken louder one than the next and Catherine knew that her sister was coming unhinged.

"Come on Heather, let me in. It's just me..."

A long silence followed during which Catherine questioned whether or not she'd have to force her way in...But then the door slowly opened and Catherine only got a glimpse of her sister's red rimmed eyes before Heather turned back to the bed and literally fell in face first, her lithe body shaken by violent sobbing. Catherine ran to her and threw her arms around her protectively. Heather didn't react at first but after a moment she pulled away from her sister's embrace. "It's all your fault," she cried between shuddering breaths.

No matter how unfair Catherine thought this reproach was or how upset it made her, she chose to drop it for the time being. She knew how stubborn her sister could be but also that when she'd have all the facts hopefully she would come around. "I'm so sorry this had to happen on your wedding day."

She noticed that Heather appeared to calm down a little and figured that maybe she could at least answer a few questions. Catherine had quite a few in light of what happened. "Heather..." she asked softly, "are you sure you never mentioned Vincent's huh...issues to Matthew?"

Heather replied angrily, "how exactly was I supposed to get THAT into the conversation? Hey by the way my sister's boyfriend literally is a beast!?"

"Sorry I asked," Catherine answered crossly. Sometimes her sister's attitude could be beyond infuriating. The only reason Catherine didn't just turn her back on her at that point was the fact that in the past Vincent and her had been the cause of Heather's jeopardy. However, maybe because Heather's accusations were directed at Vincent, Catherine's resolution not to correct Heather's misconceptions about the earlier attack went out the window. "Vincent and I apparently had nothing to do with what happened, Heather. If anything, Vincent saved you again!"

"How can you say that? A beast attacked us!"

"You mean the same beast that your fiancé calls his brother?" The look of utter shock and dismay on her sister's face floored Catherine. She had been so angry that she'd gone overboard. "I'm sorry I shouldn't have blurted it out like that..."

Catherine could now see anger, grief and disbelief taking turns on Heather's expressive face. "Look here," she finally screamed in self-righteous anger. Before she could pursue her tirade however, Tess arguing loudly with someone on the first floor grabbed Catherine's full attention along with Heather's. Tess had sounded more pissed than truly fearful but Catherine wasn't about to take chances. She left the room without a word, causing Heather to wonder if her sister was abandoning her. Before she knew it though Catherine was back in the room's doorway holding her service weapon with both hands in a steadying stance. She silently indicated to Heather that she should hide in the closet, which was spacious and, Catherine noticed in passing, filled with women's clothing and dusty boxes. As soon as Heather closed the door she headed down toward the commotion. In addition to Tess's voice she could now here a man speaking in a calming tone that only seemed to exacerbate her partner more.

Catherine had hoped that it might just be the pastor engaging in an argument with Tess but as she got closer she recognized the calmer voice. She lowered her gun at that point and an irritated sigh escaped her as she resolutely descended the last few stairs and returned to the den. "What are you doing here," she immediately asked the tall black man facing Tess. The other agent she'd met at the hospital a few weeks prior was also present.

"I was just telling your friend here that we came to offer our assistance."

Immediately suspicious, Catherine understood Tess's visceral reaction to the newcomers. Yes they had saved J.T. from certain death that day but their methods and secrecy put her and everyone else ill at ease about their motivations. In fact they had made it clear that there should be a quid pro quo down the road. One that might put not only her and Vincent in danger but most likely J.T. and Tess as well.

"Your...assistance...right..." Catherine pointedly replied. "Now a suspicious person might question how a beast came here just now, one that is supposedly related to my new brother-in-law of all things, and here you are! Ready to save the day!"

The black agent was watching her with an infuriatingly calm expression that only served to magnify Catherine's irritation. "Actually, Miss, from what we saw, you've all dealt with the problem rather efficiently and were in no need of us sweeping in and saving the day. Although we did take care of your little witness problem…"

"What? You didn't kill the pastor did you?" Tess went right up to his face as she screamed this.

"Of course not," the black man replied calmly, amazingly cool in the face of such an accusation, "we merely reinforced your little deception when we arrived, and trust us the man is now convinced a bear came into your house…"

"And I suppose you're gonna tell us you had nothing to do with this attack right?" Catherine spat.

"Miss Chandler I can assure you that we had nothing to do with this..."

"And yet here you are!"

"I know what this looks like but we did say we've been watching you all for a while. We didn't hide that fact from you," the agent answered reasonably. "We told you we need yours and Mr. Keller's help. What purpose would be served by us attacking you?"

"I have no idea," Catherine yelled. "You tell me!"

"Look, you at least must know we're not going to hurt you or your friends, right?"

"As long as we're of some use to you..." Catherine saw the agent preparing to protest and she spoke first. "Trust is earned and frankly you've got a lot to answer for. A few weeks ago you did have people killed just to conceal the truth."

"If you're referring to the guard, he really did have a heart attack Miss Chandler and you had already done a great job of dealing with what he saw. We didn't think he was a threat in any way after that."

Catherine stared hard at the agent but could detect no dissembling. At times like these she wished she had Vincent's ability, but she could only rely on her own judgment now, as flawed as it might be. "What about the man who planted evidence? His heart attack was two bullets through it..."

"First, what would our motives be? We wanted your boyfriend out of prison and that man's death only served to delay his exoneration... Maybe you should be looking closer to home for a culprit..."

"It wasn't my father," Catherine shot back just a little too fast. The look of commiseration she received in lieu of a reply hurt more than an outright contradiction. Still, the same way she'd just decided to follow her own instincts in regard to the agents, Catherine had already weighed her father's guilt in the matter. At the time he had no particular reason to lie about it since he'd already admitted to have framed Vincent. However ever since she and Gabriel had found the man dead in his apartment a more logical answer to the mystery had nagged at her more than once. Her reluctance at admitting this ultimate betrayal had kept her from facing the truth in this matter so far.

The past year had been a long and often painful one. Never more in fact than when she found out the other man she'd let herself fall in love with was in fact the true monster he'd nearly convinced her Vincent to be. The agency had been the perfect scapegoat until now but Catherine realized that the truth must indeed reside closer to home. Then again, if she was right, Gabriel had already paid the ultimate price for his crimes. To his credit the agent didn't press the matter. Instead he returned to the present problem. "The only reason we contacted you directly is that we guessed Vincent didn't go to the hospital and basically came to offer our services."

"Thanks for the offer but J.T. already took care of it."

"All the same if he needs more medical attention we can always provide some help, discreet and off the radar of any government or law enforcing agencies…" The other agent who'd been silent so far handed her a card, which Catherine took after a moment of hesitation. He also gave one to Tess, who after a nod from Catherine also grabbed it. However the fact that these men were already aware of the gravity of Vincent's wound disturbed Catherine deeply.

She pocketed the card, unwilling as she was to dismiss any avenue that could possibly help Vincent. "How did you know," she asked. "Did you bug him?"

"All you really need to know is we're watching in case of incidents just like this one. But in this instance, we hacked your own security cameras. Your father was also on our radar and he has been for some time."

This Catherine could believe.

"Catherine is everything alright," Heather called from the top of the stairs.

"Yeah," Catherine responded quickly, "it was just concerned neighbours -and they're leaving now." She added pointedly, staring at the two agents.

They took the hint. "We're leaving as per your wishes but remember we're far from done here...and do not hesitate to call on us if need be."

"We will see," Catherine replied somewhat dismissively. She then resolutely turned her back on them. "Tess, could you see those gentlemen to the door?"

"Glad to...What door is that?" Tess joked while already leading the two agents towards the destroyed French doors.

Catherine barely registered her partner's wry humour. She was boiling inside. Everything seemed once more to be coming at them from all corners. Worrying about her sister, Vincent and now those agents thrown in the mix, not to mention this new beast, it was eating at her.

"Catherine," Heather inquired anew.

"I'm coming up, Heather". Catherine didn't look forward to finishing their earlier conversation but she could see no way around it. "Coming," she repeated as she headed upstairs.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter II

JT parked the car close to the dungeon's entrance before turning to get a better look at Vincent who had apparently succumbed to exhaustion and was sleeping fitfully in the reclined seat beside him. He immediately realised that something was very wrong. Vincent's breathing seemed labored and his skin was deathly pale and clammy. "Vincent?" He called anxiously but got no answer although Vincent stirred and moaned as if in the thrall of some very unpleasant dream. The bandage didn't look any more bloodied than when they left the estate only an hour before. The only possible conclusion was that he was bleeding internally. Before he could voice his conclusion out loud, the man with the collar did so with the air of calm and authority one would expect from a physician. "Your friend is bleeding internally and, from the way he favors his left side even semi-conscious, I'd guess he has a ruptured spleen and possibly one or two broken ribs."

JT turned toward the collared man in astonishment not only because of the accurate diagnosis but mostly at the gall of this man being so clinical about a wound he himself inflicted on Vincent. "You got some nerve..." JT's protest died in his throat when he saw that the man he thought was subdued and collared didn't have the collar around his neck anymore. Instead, he saw it in Matthew's hands and this one quickly threw it out the window. Jeremy's eyes then began to glow in the now familiar fashion and the fangs grew quickly in the beast's mouth. Before JT could even begin to reach for the trank gun he'd been keeping beside him the whole trip the beast had jumped over the back seat and bit Vincent just above his left shoulder blade. The bite drew blood but the beast didn't pursue his attack, instead returning to his place in the back of the car before Vincent could react. JT only had time to notice that Jeremy was already turning back into human form before he heard his friend's roar. Right away, the change took place in Vincent and he almost went for the other beast but he was still too weak and growled menacingly instead. By then JT had gotten a hold of the trank gun and, in doubt, he was aiming it at Vincent but Jeremy stopped him cold. "Don't!" The man barked with the authority of a drill sergeant. As a matter of fact JT wasn't the only one startled. Vincent's growl quieted right away although the hyper vigilance didn't diminish an iota. "He needs the beast to heal the wounds, "Jeremy said in the same clinical voice he'd used before. "I'm hoping this might just kill two birds with one stone."

For another beat JT was too stunned by the attitude of this man they thought they had captured to utter a reply, but then he suddenly exploded, "what the hell are you talking about? You ahole you just bit Vincent and you act like you were helping?"

"JT," Vincent interjected with surprising strength for a guy at death's doors. But then JT got a good look at him and noticed that his coloring was coming back to normal by the moment. The bite marks didn't bleed anymore. In fact JT couldn't even see them. Vincent had also returned to human form and seemed calmer already.

"What the hell? You're healing fast again...how?"

Instead of answering, Vincent turned to face Jeremy and his brother. The former held his gaze calmly whilst talking to his brother. "Matthew I think you can retrieve the collar now. I don't think those two are in a very trusting mood." Matthew only nodded his assent and got out of the car. No one spoke until he'd brought back the collar and given it directly to Jeremy, who proceeded to put it back on himself. "Maybe you should show us into this dungeon of yours and then we can all relax."

Still staring at Jeremy with a mixture of suspicion and perplexity, Vincent simply replied "yeah..." and stayed any further protest from JT with a dismissive wave.

Hardly deterred, JT started, "but..."

"JT please, let's go in first, like the man said."

JT got out without another word but his eyes were throwing daggers at pretty much everyone in turn. The two brothers went in the indicated door first, soon followed by JT and Vincent, whose puzzled expression only deepened at the utter lack of struggle or apparent worry demonstrated by the brothers.

Back at the country house Catherine had just gotten back to the guestroom her sister was staying in. She was surprised to find Heather with some dusty leather bound notebook opened in her lap instead of wallowing in her misery as Catherine had expected her to.

"Heather?"

Heather seemed startled as she looked up from the notebook with a guilty expression that puzzled Catherine. However she presumed it was a reaction to what would amount to a catastrophe in anyone's world, but maybe even more so for her sister, who liked to control everything in her life. "What now," Heather answered testily.

"Honestly, I'm at a loss," Catherine replied sincerely. "You got what I said earlier about your new husband."

"I'd prefer you didn't call him that," Heather spat; her face was getting flushed with renewed anger.

Catherine tried to sound as reasonable as possible. "Ok I get how this looked..."

Heather's eyes widened perceptibly at this. "I'll tell you how it looked," she screamed. "The asshole actually lied to me for 6 months, and me...and I..." tears welled up in her eyes and soon afterward she was crying openly in Catherine's arms. She comforted her for a while, trying to silence her own worries. The only reason she hadn't bolted yet besides her sister's grief was that if Vincent had gotten worse JT would have called. However after a while that confidence eroded and she began imagining all that could have gone wrong. Heather must have sensed her sister pulling away because she sat back, resolutely wiping the tears still brightening her eyes. "You should go. No reason we should both be miserable."

Catherine was torn between her need to know what happened and her sister's anguish. She stared at Heather with searching eyes, still wondering what she could say or do which could make this all better. "Look, all I can tell you is we don't know for sure what Matthew really intended. You should take a step back yes, but then maybe...maybe you could give him a chance to explain..." Catherine saw her sister gather her breath most likely to protest again so she went on, "if I had not I would never have forgiven myself with Vincent."

Heather took a few shuddering breaths before answering, "I don't know if I can do that...but I promise I'll think about it."

Catherine thought she detected a sliver of hope in her sister's voice. That probably was the best she could hope for on this day. "You sure you're gonna be ok here?" She saw hesitation in Heather's eyes and understood her fear. The house was isolated and what happened before didn't inspire much confidence in the safety of the premises. "I'll ask Tess to stick around until my return alright?"

"Thank you," Heather breathed out. Catherine gave her sister one last hug before leaving her, trying to silence the guilt she felt. Still she had to know if Vincent and JT were alright. She'd already worked out that if they got to the dungeon they probably didn't have any cell reception down there but she still didn't understand why neither one of them would have thought to go outside to call them. The worry was gnawing more at her by the moment. She found Tess still in the den, picking up some of the mess and obviously just as anxious as Catherine felt.

"Hey," Tess said as she stopped what she was doing the moment she saw Catherine.

"Any news?"

"None," Tess simply answered. "I tried calling them but either they got no reception or…"

Catherine didn't have to hear the rest and Tess knew that.

"Tess, I hate to have to ask this…"

"What?" Tess asked the question but, somehow, Catherine was certain she already knew the answer.

"I have to go find out what happened but I can't leave Heather alone here…"

Tess eyed her warily, "You know I'm just as worried as you are right?"

"I promise I'll call as soon as I know anything. But Heather is so shaken up… and also what if something really happened and the beast comes back…We still don't know who he really was after…"

"I know, I know… doesn't mean I have to like it."

"Thank you," Catherine said, hugging Tess quickly but effusively. "I promise I'll call."

"You better," Tess replied tensely.

Catherine headed for the door right away, not wanting to waste any more time. She climbed into her car and was on the road in seconds, driving just a little too fast. She had over an hour of travel ahead of her and she knew that unless she got a call from the boys she'd find that delay excruciating.

The dungeon was as damp and poorly lit as Vincent remembered. They hadn't been there in a few weeks and he frankly didn't miss it. Every time he came to the dungeon, the memories of all the misery that had taken place here overwhelmed his strong senses at first and he had to shut down his extraordinary perception as much as possible to stand it. The place smelled of mildew, blood and death; and the faintest reminder of Tory's scent still lingered in there as well, which always made him feel uncomfortable in and of itself. And if that wasn't enough the memory of the last time he'd been here, when Catherine had locked him in one of the holding cells was also seared in his mind. She had used the gem to keep him there while she had gone and attempted to kill another beast. She'd only been gone a few hours but he never wanted to relive that feeling of helplessness and despair at the thought of never seeing her again. She had meant well, but would most likely have gotten everyone killed if she'd gone ahead with her plan. Fortunately she understood that in the end and they got to defeat the monster together after all. He forgave her this momentary lack of trust because even knowing how much stronger they were together he'd always thought that he should protect her at all cost and, evidently, Catherine had been convinced of the exact same thing. By now, he hoped they both knew better.

All in all, Vincent would have preferred being anywhere but here. However he had to recognize that this was the only relatively safe place they could have gone to. The only potential threat to this secret place was the agency and the agents they met recently and so far that had not given any sign that they knew about this location.

Jeremy and Matthew stopped ahead of JT and him. They seemed fascinated with the Frankenstein like laboratory that occupied the largest part of the dungeon.

"This Sam guy spared no expense with this get up. Except for the location that is too gothic for my taste, my lab holds no candle to this one," Jeremy told them while checking one or another piece of equipment that only JT could have identified. "I see that he was doing some seriously advanced molecular research. Hum, maybe if I could see some of that research…"

"I don't think so, and I'd also like you to tell us how you knew about Sam," JT interjected, quickly positioning himself between Jeremy and the main table with all the test tubes and centrifuges still in place from the last time anyone worked on them, namely him.

Jeremy stared at JT not quite unkindly for a moment. "As far as I know, Sam was someone we kept an eye out for because he promised some payback for his son's death. I have a pretty good idea of what he was going for and his results were remarkable considering his organization was rather small… But then, Sam didn't get what he was working on at all. Maybe you might…"

"I don't care what you think. What Sam was doing was inhuman and basically wrong! The only reason I'd ever work on this stuff again would be to help Vincent."

Vincent interrupted them then, "You said you would explain what you did to me once we were inside. I'm waiting…"

"Right," Jeremy agreed with a slight smile forming. "I did promise." He turned regretfully away from the table and faced Vincent directly. "It's just that for you to truly understand my explanations you'd have to know a little more about what you are…"

"I think I got a pretty good idea," Vincent told him, obviously a little put off by Jeremy's comment.

"I'll admit, you got the working basis of the thing down path," Jeremy graciously replied, "but you don't know jack about why this happened to you and, more than anything else, why you're still breathing while most of the others in your unit were exterminated."

"What the hell do you know about that!?" JT exclaimed angrily. "Were you with those sons of bitches at Muirfield? Is that the 'we' you mentioned earlier?"

Jeremy seemed hardly to notice JT's aggressiveness, instead answering conversationally, "You could say that, although my goals were diametrically opposed to those of that outfit. They high jacked my chimera research with the pretence of saving lives and even convinced Vanessa of their good intentions."

"Vanessa?" Vincent interrupted, "Catherine's mother? You knew her?"

"Knew her? Of course I did. We used to be really close until we had a slight falling out."

"A falling out like she found out you injected yourself with beast serum?" JT suggested sarcastically.

"Heavens no! Besides, why would I need to inject myself with that? The entire experiment was …"

Matthew interjected forcefully at that, "I think you said enough. We shouldn't even be in this position and you know it." This he directed at Jeremy and it was obvious that Jeremy had already said some things he wasn't supposed to.

Jeremy stared almost defiantly at his brother for a long moment and then seemed to relent. "You're right of course. I did promise I wouldn't this time…"

"Ok, I heard enough, you guys are just talking a lot of nonsense and I think we all need a time out," Vincent said impatiently, his eyes already glowing and without waiting for anyone's answer he blurred towards Jeremy, grabbing him and stopping only when this one was safely inside one of the cells, which he quickly locked tight. "All I'm interested in," he continued as if nothing had occurred and ignoring the strangely expectant look on Jeremy's face, "is how in the hell you healed me with that bite and what you came for in the first place!"

"Some people think it wouldn't be in your best interest to know everything…" Jeremy answered after he and Vincent stared each other down for a few seconds. "But I do recognize your obvious need for direct answers…For the sake of keeping things friendly on my part at least…" at this Jeremy ostensibly indicated the bars of the cells but made no mention of them out loud, "to answer your first question, I can tell you I had good reasons to believe that my DNA might cancel out the serum that was injected in you a year ago by this Reynolds guy. And I'd hoped it might help with a few memory issues you might still have..."

"What?" Vincent and JT both exclaimed.

"You know I'd be glad to fill in the blanks if…"

A warning from Matthew stopped him again.

"You're gonna tell us what you know right now," Vincent insisted, his voice deepening towards the growling tones of the beast.

"Look this is all a big mistake," Matthew interjected, "we really shouldn't be here at all. There's nothing we can tell you other than it would be in your best interest to let us go."

"You're both full of shit. I don't know what your deal is but I'm done listening to this crap. When you're ready to tell us the truth, give us a shout. JT let's go!"

JT hesitated. He wasn't so sure they shouldn't stick around and question the two men further but he could sense that Vincent was becoming unduly unnerved and that was never a good thing. "Alright," he agreed for his friend's sake and he followed him back to the laboratory part of the dungeon, leaving Jeremy behind in the cell and his brother Matthew just outside of it, a slightly worried expression plastered over his handsome face. Vincent closed the heavy wooden door that separated the cells from the lab and he lowered a newly installed iron bar to which he fastened a heavy duty padlock he'd acquired for just such an occasion. He heard a muffled protest from Matthew but chose to ignore it. JT indicated the lock, "you came prepared?"

"I installed it after I escaped the cells a while ago… figured if I ever needed to be restrained again, it would make for an added layer of safety…"

"We won't need that for you again," JT firmly affirmed although deep down he knew the possibility was there, however remote it might be. "But just for the sake of argument, how is that gonna hold you if the cell didn't?"

"I just thought it would give you or whoever else is here more time to run…"

"How considerate of you," JT quipped.

"You know that's no joking matter JT" Vincent protested his friend's levity.

"Oh come on, I'm entitled and besides, I've hardly ever worried about you hurting me."

Vincent eyed JT thoughtfully for a moment. "You know, until a couple years ago, you never did…"

"What's that? Are you blaming Catherine now?"

"NO!" Vincent protested vehemently. "it's just… I wish I could be as certain as you are, and today was another wake up call."

"What do you mean?" JT asked, genuinely surprised at the intensity of his friend's worries. "Isn't everything much better lately? I thought you were perfectly in control and have been for a while and now you apparently can heal again, that's good news…"

Vincent avoided JT eyes and walked a few steps away before answering. "For the past couple days I've been feeling off…mostly around Catherine. I thought I was just a little paranoid… but then when this guy crashed the wedding and I lost all control… I blacked out JT!"

"Simple," JT replied without hesitation, "You sensed a threat to us and you reacted. That's nothing new for you. You're gonna have to stop automatically jumping to self-loathing every time something happens. Not everything is your fault you know."

"But I usually am aware of doing it, JT…. What if those fugues are starting again? Maybe I should be locked up in one of those cells too…" Vincent finally turned back to his friend and the uncertainty and sadness JT saw in his eyes hurt him physically. He didn't know what the man now in their dungeon had meant about the experiments but he still felt deeply responsible for what was done to Vincent and every time a hurdle like this one occurred, it just reminded him painfully of his past error.

"Look, we dealt with it last year and we also established it wasn't Catherine's presence that caused the fugues… Besides, ever since we gave you Vanessa's treatment, nothing has changed in your DNA. The abilities you developed after Reynolds injected you they were already there; you just hadn't learned to use them yet. All he did at the time was give you some stuff that played tricks on your memory. Probably some cold war drug he got his hands on. As for your fast healing, he probably got the guy from Muirfield to concoct this stuff to make the beasts vulnerable once they outlived their usefulness. I hadn't figured what yet but maybe now I can do some comparisons and see what changed. As far as losing control, it most likely was the heat of the moment. But if…IF it reoccurs, we pretty much know what to do about it now. So don't you worry, we're on top of it."

Vincent stared uncertainly at the door, willing to believe this if it meant nothing was wrong between him and Catherine. He just couldn't take more of the ups and downs they had been through the past couple of years. They'd barely got back together as it was. Still, something was nagging at him. "It's just, the whole time in the car, I wasn't out of control…at least not until that guy bit me but then that was just reacting…"

"Maybe you sensed he was under control and that was enough. Besides, most of what you experience has nothing to do with Catherine," JT insisted, knowing without being told that that was still his friend's real concern. "And if you're still afraid of her reaction she's proven to you time and again that she's not going to run away at the slightest problem."

"She also left me when she thought the beast side of me had taken over and I couldn't blame her…"

"Come on Vince, she mostly left you because you sided with Tory and we all know why that was. The rest of your problems all originated from that and Catherine's father."

"Yeah," Vincent dejectedly agreed, "mostly the fact that I almost killed him in front of her."

"Would you stop that? You weren't yourself then and it was mostly his fault too! If he hadn't kidnapped you and wiped your memory none of that would have happened in the first place and Catherine knows that!"

JT's outburst finally seemed to have a calming effect on his friend, but JT couldn't help wondering if Vincent would ever stop worrying about what he could do. Maybe that wasn't in the cards for him. Nevertheless, it was also very obvious that Vincent was better with Catherine and she seemed genuinely happy with him. That should be enough. JT really hoped it would be. "How about we take a step back and I go get us some coffee and call Tess and Catherine. I'm sure they'll be glad to hear from us, particularly the fact that you're much better now."

"You're right, and make mine a double," Vincent accepted with obvious relief at the idea of putting these worries aside for a while longer. "I'm afraid that the honeymoon has been cut short for Heather," he still added.

"Oh I'm not so worried about that girl," JT called even as he was heading for the stairs, "she always bounces back!"

Vincent answered the now closed door, "I hope so…"

In the cell room, Matthew was staring dejectedly at the heavy door ahead of him. "Now what?" he asked, knowing Jeremy was listening without needing to look at him.

"Now we wait, I guess," Jeremy replied calmly.

"You were about to do exactly what you swore you wouldn't do, Jeremy."

"Well, I didn't," Jeremy answered dismissively.

"'Brother', I have a mind of giving the boy a reason to kill you right here and now. This way we'd be sure you won't mess this up."

"Well, he could try…" The challenge and a hint of disdain coloured Jeremy's voice. If any fear was present at all, Matthew couldn't detect it. "At any rate, I'll simply go back to my strong hold and reinforce the security measures so I won't be able to come back. Also your gratitude for the little gift I gave him is overwhelming…"

"Gift my ass…his healing was just a side effect. You thought he might die without remembering… You can be such an ass Jeremy. And to think I believed you when you said you wanted to help. Vanessa believed you too in spite of all you've done and look what happened to her…I should have known better…"

"We all know it wasn't out of the goodness of her heart… or yours for that matter. It was for her daughter's sake first and the fact that you needed my brain. Isn't that ironic that I'm still the only one who can help you?"

"All I know if that if he remembers and things go to hell because of it, I don't care how strong or smart you are, Jeremy. If they don't get you, I'll stand in line."

Jeremy seemed to assess the veracity of the threat and from the look of him he took it seriously. "I did promise and believe me or not, my intentions were honourable. I loved her you know. I couldn't stand her pain any more than any of you. But look at them! He spent the best part of the last ten years in hiding. In the two years they've been together he put her in jeopardy more times than I care to count. What is it you're protecting here, can you tell me that?"

"You've always had a very strange way of showing your love, 'brother'! And as far as Vincent's situation, you're responsible for it, so can it," Matthew almost screamed.

"Alright, alright…" Jeremy admitted. "I really did intend to make amends. Well, at least I do wanna live…" Jeremy added when he saw the skeptic look on Matthew's face

"She belongs with him and they deserve the happiness that you've denied them before. The best thing you could do right now is to get away from here as fast as possible and maybe, just maybe the consequences won't be as dire as I imagine them. Well at least for them. Thanks to you I just lost a good thing."

"Oh come on, you didn't really love that girl now did you?"

"Didn't start out like this but yeah, I did. Wouldn't have married her otherwise..."

"Help me out of this collar and I'll get us out of here if you really think it's the best option."

"Without hurting any of them," Matthew declared categorically.

"Without hurting them," Jeremy sighed. When Matthew didn't make a move to help he questioned him, "What are you waiting for?"

"I'm thinking…"


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter III

Catherine had been gone for some time but Heather was still sitting on the bed, staring at nothing, feeling nothing besides a deep emptiness. But then, the memory of what happened returned vividly once more as it had many times since and she felt as if she was going to burst open from the grief. Tears were welling up in her eyes again and she wiped at them almost angrily. As she did so, she caught sight of the journal she'd begun reading to forget the hurt earlier. From what she'd already read, it was a journal written in the 1800s by a woman named Rebecca…

__-Today, October 23rd of the year 1845 is my birthday. My sister Rachel and I we've always celebrated our birthdays in private with our close family. But this time, our parents have decided it was time I was presented to the world properly. They have organized this grand ball where our extended family and acquaintances will be introduced to us formally. I am nervous and so is Rachel. All the more so because my father told us that he has a very serious subject to discuss with us before then. I do not know what this is all about but the knot in the pit of my stomach just will not go away. It is like this dream that keeps haunting me. In that dream, I am running in the back streets of New York, pursued by a mob and I am so scared; but never more so than when I see mine own reflection in a shop's window. There, I am no longer the person I know to be but rather a monster, a beast with glowing eyes and fangs in place of teeth, the thing people fear most. That is when I wake up from the nightmare, always, but every time I have the nightmare it seems more real. I do not know why, but I can't help thinking of this recurring nightmare as a warning… a bad omen. __

__-October 24th of the year 1845. My life just changed radically. I was right about my nightmare, it was a bad omen. What our parents told us was so shocking and Rachel was so distraught, she ran off before the ball and I have not seen her since. I couldn't blame her for wanting to get away from me and I think the only reason I got through that evening myself was the boy I met, Alistair. Maybe boy is a bad description. This tall muscular man with long flowing locks had me enthralled the moment my eyes met his deeply intense gaze and for a time I forgot all about my father's revelation. In spite of the appearance of youth, his eyes betrayed wisdom beyond his years but also a kindness and a passion that took my breath away every time I looked into them. We hardly spoke and yet, I feel like I have known him forever. He promised he would come back for me and I want to believe him with all my heart. But if he does, what will become of Alistair and I if my father is right?__

"Heather," Tess asked gently, "you ok? You've been up here a long time…"

Heather jumped inwardly, feeling a little guilty at reading the private thoughts of another woman, even though that woman died years ago. "I'm fine or I will be…"

"Yeah I know…"Tess had been dumped and/or duped before but what happened to Heather was just too terrible, particularly on the heel of another boyfriend being killed a little over a year prior. Tess really didn't want to be in Heather's shoes or even Catherine's, no matter how much she envied the strength of her love for Vincent. It seemed pretty clear that those two girls had serious problems when came to relationships. For once, she told herself that what she had with JT was so normal, so simple, it was actually wonderful.

Just then, she noticed the old leather bound journal Heather was fidgeting with. "What's that?" She remembered that a very similar journal had found its way to Catherine in which she'd read the tragic tale of one of her ancestors. How coincidental that Heather would have one just like that right then.

"Oh," Heather fumbled a little nervously, "it's just some old journal I found in the closet. I was looking at it to take my mind off…" Heather's voice trailed.

"I get that," Tess replied solicitously.

"Let's go downstairs," Heather said as she dropped the journal and got up from the bed she'd been sitting on. "I could use a stiff drink and I believe no one has availed themselves of the booze I got for this 'special' occasion," the bitter undertones were unmistakable in her speech. She then turned resolutely towards the door, not waiting to see if Tess followed her.

For a moment, Tess was tempted to check out the journal but she figured it would keep while Heather surely needed the company and she also thought that a stiff drink had a serious appeal as she followed Heather out of the room. Just when she was reaching the bar they had set up in the dining room her cell phone rang. JT was finally calling back. She answered with a sigh of relief but her first words showed her nerves had been frayed by the wait. "Hey, where have you been?"

"We got to the dungeon just like we said we would," JT answered a little defensively. "Things are more or less under control for now."

"What about Vincent?"

"He's much better physically but his moral is in the ditch and I really have to get back in there. Is Catherine around?"

"Matter of fact she left a while ago. I'm sure she'll be there soon. And JT? I know he's your friend and you say you owe him and all but don't go getting hurt for him alright? I wouldn't forgive him… or you…"

"So you really care?" JT asked just a tad uncertainly.

"You know I do, you dope," she smiled even though he couldn't see her and she was also certain she could feel one of his patented sweet smiles coming through the phone. "And don't you forget about it," she admonished playfully.

"Yes mam," JT just as playfully replied. "Love you," he added in a whisper, almost as if he wasn't sure he wanted her to hear.

Tess only hesitated an instant before blurting out, "I love you too." She hung up before he could say anything else but the elation she felt made her a little euphoric.

However Heather quickly brought her back down to earth, "Hey, how strong do you want that drink?"

Catherine had driven as fast as she'd dared and she was just then nearing the intersection with the smoke stack that indicated she was closing in on her destination. Something had been nagging at her ever since she left the mansion and suddenly an image came to her crystal clear of a man she dated a few years back. He'd been charming and everything a girl could want in a man and for a while, Catherine really thought he was the one. Then, as it happened with every relationship she'd ever had until Vincent, she'd pulled away. She wasn't even sure why she did. It was only that deep down she was certain that she couldn't be happy with any of those men. But this guy, the one she remembered, he hadn't taken rejection very well. Catherine now remembered the really weird thing about their last conversation. She had tried to let him down gently, something about how it was better she left before he got too attached and that she was so sorry she led him on, the works. Even in her memory, Catherine had to admit to herself it had been lame. However, the strangeness came from his response. He didn't exactly get angry. Instead, he acted like he expected what she did even though she hadn't really planned to break up with him until moments before it happened. Then he'd told her something that didn't make any sense at the time. "You holding out for the real deal is always a tragic mistake. Why can you never see that? I could've made you happy and given you the life you deserve."

"Look I'm very sorry, ok?" Catherine had replied then, not knowing too well what else to say. Then she had simply turned her back on him and left, utterly confused by his speech but she'd believed he was simply a little distraught at the time and didn't know what he was saying. Now however, the image of the man from her memory superimposed on the dirty man that crashed Heather's wedding and Catherine knew for sure he was one and the same. "Jeremy," she whispered, stunned.

As she turned onto the side street where the discreet door to the dungeon stood, Catherine's heart began to race madly. Then her breath quickened and at first she thought it was because of the new revelation she'd had but an even stronger sensation quickly emerged following it that she couldn't pinpoint right away. And then as she parked the car she understood it was a scent, a familiar and reassuring one, and it seemed so close that she looked besides her in the car, half expecting to see Vincent by her side. She found the seat as empty as it had been so far but the scent was still there and getting stronger along with yet a new sensation. It almost overwhelmed her senses, a heartbeat that was getting faster even as she listened; so loud that it began eclipsing every other sound. Her eyes turned to the most likely direction for the sensations and she found herself staring at the metal door she now knew too well. She might have chucked it all up to an over active imagination but what really astounded her was that just then she thought she saw Vincent's ghostly figure entering the door and closing it behind him. It had been so vivid that she'd called to him but in the next instant she knew that no one had been there at that precise moment. In all the time she had known about beasts, she'd had many occasions to feel abject fear, starting with the day her mother was shot, either for herself or for those she loved, but nothing compared to the dread she felt just now. And then, without warning, everything went black…

Down in the dungeon JT and Vincent were sitting on each side of the lab table, cleared away somewhat to leave room for JT's laptop. They'd decided to research Matthew more thoroughly than they had before since they had not been able to find anything about Jeremy yet, but so far they'd only gotten to the stuff they already knew. JT had mentioned how neat this all was; too neat for his taste. Now he was going through databases that usually weren't made available to the general public. He'd gotten in them a few times before, first when he and Vincent were running from Muirfield and even more often since they met Catherine. FBI, NSA and a few underground chat rooms that gave information of a more comprehensive and less scrupulous nature, "Found anything yet?" asked Vincent. Patience was not one of Vincent's virtues, JT knew that very well, but even for him, JT thought his agitation was a little much. "No, I haven't but I will if you stop bugging me about it every two seconds."

Another impatient sigh met this answer. "We should have checked out Matthew more thoroughly before…I should have sensed he was dirty."

"You mean because he's protecting his brother the beast experiment?"

Vincent felt the weight of the accusation in his friend's voice even before he saw the hurt look on JT's face. "You know what I meant JT!"

"Yeah I do know and now we're even…" JT knew from the look on his friend's face that he didn't have to remind him of his earlier blunder. "Anyway, maybe we shouldn't kick the guy down before we learned more about him and this Jeremy. I know we haven't met many good beasts but we did meet one, remember? Tory had a good heart and she tried to save my life. And we do consider you a good guy, don't we?"

"Again…not the same thing…" Vincent protested weakly.

"All I'm saying is we shouldn't be too judgemental. This beast just possibly saved your life."

"God knows why or how," Vincent worriedly replied. "My experiences don't make me a very trusting man, you know that."

"Don't I?" JT questioned pointedly. "Besides, if you'd been just a little more patient, I'm sure we could have gotten more out of them…" He interrupted himself when he saw the expression on Vincent's face change drastically and then the first hint of glowing eyes showing. "Vincent?"

Instead of answering him, Vincent stood up suddenly, the chair falling noisily behind him. Rather than heading for the cells as JT immediately expected, Vincent turned to the door that led to the entrance to the dungeon and he grew into the full beast, intensely alert. "What is it?" JT asked again but he might as well have been talking to a wall for all the attention he got from Vincent and that's when he remembered the discussion they'd just had about him losing control. Fortunately, he'd had the presence of mind of bringing in the trank gun and this time he didn't hesitate, aiming and shooting at the same time. Vincent reacted to the sting, batting at it while growling loudly but even if he must have known where the shot had come from he went on staring at the door, even as he began to vacillate from the effects of the drug he'd been injected with.

And then the world exploded. The door flew across the lab missing JT by inches before crashing loudly against the far wall. Vincent was trying to stop his fall by holding on to the edge of the table but irremediably the drug was taking effect. JT understood his mistake too late but what came next almost wiped his mind blank with shock and terror. First in the now wide opened doorway, and then in a blur right beside Vincent, was Catherine but not the one he knew so well. Her face was beastly, almost unrecognizable, her eyes glowed fiercely and the growl she cast his way along with a look of pure hatred nearly made him void his bladder. In that one instant the memory of what Gabriel had done to him returned with a vengeance. Then Catherine turned away from him, holding on to Vincent, pawing at him as if she wanted to help but didn't know how, a beastly reaction. Her growl then grew louder as she turned not to JT but towards the barred wooden door that led to the cells. She finally let Vincent drop the last few inches and with an even more terror inducing growl, she blurred to the door, stopping only the instant it took her to pull and twist the thick iron bar Vincent had installed as if it was nothing more than a cardboard cut-out. She threw it to the side and pulled the door right off its hinges, and then she ran inside the cell room. JT only then managed to remember he was still holding the trank gun. With trembling hands he loaded two more darts in the gun but he still hesitated, terror fighting with the need to help his friends.

Shaking all over, he looked down at Vincent, who was obviously losing consciousness, but even as he did so, he moaned and whimpered like a wounded animal. That wasn't the usual reaction to the drugs and JT was finally convinced that this did look like the fugues he had had before. He wondered vaguely if the memories were coming back to Vincent like the other beast had intimated but another growl, deeper and enraged resounded and that brought JT back to the more urgent problem at hand. Then a human voice cried out and that finally spurred him into action. He ran to the door, holding on tight to the gun, all the way dreading what he was going to see.

Inside the scene was possibly even more unbelievable than he had anticipated. Rather than going for the lock, Catherine, in an apparently blind beastly rage was holding Jeremy's neck in her clawed hands through the thick bars of the cell. Once again, the collar was no longer around his neck but rather in Matthew's left hand while the man's right arm hung at his side in an unnatural position. Jeremy had fully reverted to the beast they'd seen earlier but he was still struggling to hold back her hands as Catherine's hold on him was fierce and he couldn't shake her off.

As soon as Matthew saw the gun in JT's hand, he recognized it as the trank one JT had waved earlier and he screamed, "Shoot her! Shoot her! If she kills him she won't be able to live with herself, trust me, shoot her," with an authority JT had not known the man capable of. JT only wavered a few more seconds before deciding that Catherine did pose the most risk since Jeremy was still in the cell.

He was so distraught by what he had to do he almost closed his eyes, wincing as the dart hit her in the back. She let go of Jeremy immediately, turning towards JT with murderous eyes. He again congratulated himself for getting a trank gun that could send more than one shot without recharging as he pulled the trigger a second time, hitting her at the base of the neck. She finally visibly slowed down and was now feebly batting at the second dart. Then, as she looked up slowly from the dart toward JT, he saw the glow slowly fading in her eyes and a look of surprise replaced it even as her features returned to normal. She then began to topple over and JT barely reached her before she hit her head on the concrete floor.

Inside the cell, Jeremy had reverted to his human form as well and was now rubbing the swelling welts on his neck where Catherine had nearly torn his throat out. "So much for waiting and seeing I guess," he cryptically said, the comment most likely directed at Matthew. "Matt how about you give the collar to JT? I think we'd all feel safer if it was around her neck when she wakes up." Matthew held the collar to JT without argumenting and JT only hesitated a moment before taking the professed collar and then cinching it securely around Catherine's neck. Then breathing hard from exhaustion and shock, he sat back heavily and turned his full attention to the two other men. "WHAT THE HELL!" he finally screamed.

"Ok, buddy, calm down," Jeremy admonished. Incongruously the man in the cell who had just almost been killed was the calmest of them all. "First can you help Matthew?"

JT was still breathing hard and reeling from the terror of the past few minutes so that the inquiry went right over his head.

"JT right?" Jeremy asked again. "That's what they call you buddy?" Jeremy insisted again.

It took JT a moment to focus, "yeah that's me, what's it to you?" JT replied a little shakily.

"Can you help Matthew," Jeremy repeated more firmly.

"I'm not a doctor," JT responded automatically, "Vincent is."

"Alright…if…Vincent is up to it…"

"He's out."

"Then maybe you could let me out so I can help him. I have medical training. I'll secure his injury until we can get him to a hospital."

"A hospital?" JT questioned anxiously. "What is he gonna tell them?"

"Not to worry," Jeremy said in a most reassuring tone, "my brother has no interest in exposing any of us, trust me on that at least."

JT didn't make any move just yet. He was staring at Catherine's prostrate body. "Catherine," JT sighed in utter shock and disbelief. He knew what he saw but that just didn't register with plain reality just yet.

"Look," Matthew started, I understand that this is a lot to take in…"

A swelling of rightful anger bloomed in JT's chest. "What the hell did you do to my friend!?"

"We haven't done anything to her," Jeremy answered, "From my point of view she's rather the one who did something to me," he pursued, still holding his neck ostensibly.

"I'm sure you deserved it!" JT exclaimed forcefully.

"Well…in the grand scheme of things, I'm sure I did a lot of things to deserve it, but under the circumstances, I'm somewhat the victim and so is Matthew... Now if you could please let me take care of his injury." JT debated what the best course of action would be but in this situation, he realized all he could get was the least bad. He carefully laid Catherine's head down and went to open the cell. "Now, no funny business!"

JT barely had time to finish that sentence before he was forcefully pushed aside and Jeremy blurred out the cell and disappeared through the door. "Bloody Hell," he exclaimed then, running after the beast but by the time he got to the lab, Jeremy was long gone. The only good thing about it was that he didn't touch Vincent who was still unconscious but amazingly gave sign of waking up already. Seeing that his friend would be alright, he went back inside the cell room to watch over Catherine. "Looks like your brother doesn't care about you that much," he told Matthew, who seemed unfazed by his brother's escape. If anything, he appeared relieved in spite of his obvious pain. He was about to suggest he might be able to do something about Matthew's arm after all but Vincent's voice grabbed both their attention.

"JT could you explain to me why Catherine is unconscious and wearing the collar...please," each word in Vincent's question came with such barely contained anger, JT swallowed hard before he even attempted to respond.

"Vincent you gotta promise you'll keep your cool...as much as possible."

"I'll tell you buddy… from where I stand there's not much chance of that."

JT turned to his friend and saw that he was still unsteady on his legs, leaning against the doorjamb. "First, sorry about the dart but I couldn't wait to be sure you were in control, Vince…also how the hell did you wake up so fast?"

"Never mind that!" Vincent exclaimed, still barely containing his anger. "Why did you trank Catherine?!"

"Ok, buddy, look…if I told you, you wouldn't believe me. Cause it's obvious you don't remember…"

"Wait, who hurt Matthew?" Vincent's voice trailed when his mind began to function fully and he began to sense what happened. With that almost extra sensorial ability, Vincent could replay an event almost entirely from sense memory and the fact that the scent he was now following in his mind was the one he knew the most in all the world made the picture more vivid than he ever managed before. "No way!" Physically, he was turning towards the door to the lab that was no longer there, seeing how Catherine came bursting out of it, himself falling after JT hit him with the dart, then Catherine coming to him and then running inside the cell room and then… "She tried to kill Jeremy?"

"So you do remember?" JT asked.

"No…I tracked her…"

"Oh right… well now then you understand, right?"

"None of that makes any sense. I must be confused…" Vincent seemed to be grasping at straw as he managed to straighten up and come to kneel beside Catherine and JT. He reflexively checked for a pulse and found a strong one albeit a slow one. Her breath came a little shallow but still regular. He could smell the drug coursing through her veins and also that it had been a rather large dose at that but she was metabolizing it much faster than a human her size ever could. Nevertheless, the fact that JT obviously hit her twice with the trank gun angered him anew. "JT what were you thinking? Two darts? She's not even half my size!"

"Vince in your instant recall did you happen to notice how freakishly strong she got? I'm not sure she wouldn't beat even you senseless…"

Vincent barely registered JT's remark as he was still trying to reconcile what he saw with the woman he knew. Meanwhile, he picked her up from the cold floor and set her down on a cot in the cell Jeremy had just fled from. Then an awful thought entered his mind, one that he tried in vain to silence. What if he was responsible for this? What if somehow he'd done that to her? He knew he'd never forgive himself. In that instant, just looking at her was becoming painful and he turned to the injured man instead. "JT could you monitor her vitals while I look after Matthew please?"

"Of course," JT replied after he'd gotten into the cell as well.

Vincent then went to the injured man "Let me see that arm," he told Matthew, moving toward him. As soon as he began to evaluate the gravity of the injury, his brain went on automatic and for a brief time he forgot about his guilt. "I can only immobilize this for now. You'll need to go to a hospital later."

"That's fine," Matthew said, although his entire body language said otherwise. It was obvious to Vincent that the man was in pain and that he was also afraid of him but he could do little to alleviate the fear of the beast. All he could do was reassure him on his ability to help.

"You don't have to worry, I know what I'm doing," he then told the man. "Just give me a moment. I'll be right back."

He quickly got up feeling stronger by the moment and went to the other room to fetch a few items. He returned with a large scarf, two flat pieces of wood and some tape.

"Ok it's going to hurt but I need to set it back in place and immobilize it as I told you."

Matthew only nodded, his breath quickening in anticipation but he let Vincent take his arm.

"Now take a deep breath alright?" Vincent gently said even as he firmly pulled on both side of the break, eliciting a cry of pain and surprise, but Matthew quieted down quickly, actually feeling a little better right after that.

"Ok now, that was tough but you got to hold on just a bit longer while I tape these to your arm to keep it still," Vincent told him as he showed him the wood pieces. To his credit, and in spite of the procedure being obviously painful, Matthew managed not to do more than wince while Vincent secured the splint and then used the scarf as a sling. After he was done, Vincent gave Matthew two tablets of ibuprofen and a glass of water. "You should go to a hospital for x rays and they'll most likely put on a cast on it but it's a clean break. It should heal completely. Before you do, maybe you could try to explain to us what's the deal with your 'brother'?"

Matthew eyed Vincent for a beat before answering, "I guess you could sense already that we're not actually related. My family was given guardianship over him and he lived with us for a long time. For you sake and everyone else's you should forget about him. He's my problem, not yours…"

"So, if we check your DNA we won't find anything special about it," JT questioned in turn.

"Well, I do have the gene but in the vernacular my extended family uses, I'm considered a runt…meaning yes… I mean no, no beast. And that's really all I can tell you about it. I sure hope you won't try to… say extract any information…" Matthew finished hesitantly.

"I think I'd be entitled in a way. This Jeremy attacked us and now Catherine…," Vincent decided against finishing that thought, "and also you married Catherine's sister and you know about beasts…"

"Look I know what this looks like. I'm not here to cause any problem and I have nothing to do with Muirfield if that's what you're worried about. I was asked to check up on Catherine and befriending her sister seemed the safest and most discreet way to do that. I just happened to fall in love with Heather that's all."

Vincent stared intently at Matthew, searching for any deception but he saw none. "Buddy, as far as Heather is concerned I wouldn't want to be in your shoes right now. But frankly, I need to know who wanted you to keep tabs on Catherine and why you'd go along with that."

Matthew seemed to hesitate, his eyes darting toward the door as if he was expecting someone to come through it at any moment.

"You think he's coming back," Vincent questioned him.

"Not him. Look, I guess I can at least tell you who since you've already met them. Agents Carson and Levy sent me to keep tabs on Catherine. That was almost five years ago after my 'brother'…well something happened and Catherine got on their radar. At first, that was only to keep a loose watch on her activities and see if anything changed. For the past two years, I noticed a lot of strange stuff going on but the agents only asked me six months ago to get closer to her without alarming her. As I told you before, becoming friends with Heather seemed a good way to do that but it turned out she couldn't help me much until very recently."

"You're saying Heather told you about me?" Vincent asked somewhat incredulously. He knew for a fact that in spite of her being a little immature, his beast side would be the last thing Heather would want to broadcast to the world. But then, maybe because she was marrying him. "Did she?"

"No she didn't but I've been living with her for more than three months and I recognized the signs that something big had happened. Then I saw the news about this man hunt in New York and, through a few of my connections, I found out that Catherine was suspected to be connected to the fugitive, I mean you… From the parameters I had been given by the agents, I knew I had the info they'd wanted me to find. After that, they let me off the hook and took it from there."

"All that tells us is that you're a weasel and Heather is better off knowing that now," JT interjected.

"I really love her," Matthew defended himself weakly, "I wouldn't have married her otherwise!"

"Well, good luck with that," JT replied sarcastically.

"That doesn't explain why you went along with those agents' demands," Vincent said to Matthew. "Did you do this to protect Jeremy?"

"In a way, yes…but also to protect Catherine."

"How on earth is spying on Catherine gonna help her," JT exclaimed.

"Look guys," Matthew pleaded, "I already said too much. Vincent, look at me and see that I'm telling the truth when I say that what I did was in Catherine's and your best interest and that's really all I can tell you."

Vincent knew right away that the man was sincere but it still didn't sit well with him. "That might have been enough even a day ago, but what you did to Catherine…"

"No!" Matthew protested loudly, "No one did anything to Catherine!"

"Someone sure did," JT tersely disagreed. "And since your brother ran out of here, I'd tend to hang the guilt on one or both of you guys!"

"You don't understand… Jeremy ran because…"

A loud moan coming from Catherine interrupted them all. Vincent returned to her side solicitously, forgetting for a time all his fears of being the cause of her pain.

"Is she alright," JT asked nervously.

"JT you shot her with a trank gun, I don't think that qualifies as alright…" Vincent testily answered.

"That's not fair buddy. I didn't have a choice."

Catherine's sudden agitation interrupted their squabbling. "Alistair I didn't mean to. Oh lord what have I done? I killed him!"

"It's that journal again," JT pointed out. "She's still obsessed with that?" he asked Vincent.

"Not that I knew of. She hasn't picked it up since Gabriel's death."

"And how on earth is she so alert in the first place? She should be sleeping in the animal kingdom for another two hours at least… no offense." JT added when he saw Vincent's reproachful expression.

"She's coming out of it, I can sense it," he said after a moment.

"That's impossible," JT exclaimed again, that dose could have knocked out a full grown bear for hours…also, you didn't used to metabolize this fast either…"

"As soon as we get the chance we'll do more tests," Vincent replied reasonably, "maybe that's what the fugues were about in my case…a new mutation or something. Wasn't that what happened the last time?"

"But Catherine?" JT questioned emphatically. Vincent could only shake his head at this as he had no answer.

Meanwhile, Matthew only hesitated a moment before standing up carefully. While they focussed on Catherine he was forgotten by both JT and Vincent and he decided to make a run for it. By the time he got to the street, he wondered at his luck that they had not come after him. Then he started walking down the street as fast as he could, pulling his cell phone as he went. "You got to pick me up. You'll want to hear what I just found out…"

Catherine opened her eyes but she was still obviously confused even as she stared at both JT and then Vincent in turn. "You're fine," she finally uttered, her voice a little rough on the edges but normal otherwise. Now that she was reassured about Vincent his uneasy smile started her worrying about what happened to her. The first clear thing she noticed was the hard collar around her neck and that threw her for a spin. "Why am I wearing that?" she asked, unsure if she should be angry or scared at this point.

The men's hesitation just deepened her unease further. "Someone answer me!"

"Ok Cat, I don't know how to tell you this…" JT started.

"Maybe we should let Catherine recuperate before we talk about all that," Vincent interrupted.

"I want to know," Catherine insisted. "And recuperate from what?" She could hear the slight shrill in her own voice now.

"JT had to trank you Catherine but…" Vincent tried.

"Trank ME?"

"To be fair," JT defended himself, "you weren't quite yourself at the time…"

"Not myself?"

"Ok Catherine, how about you start by telling us what you remember," Vincent interjected.

Instead of answering right away, Catherine pushed away from the cot and tried to stand up but a wave of dizziness stopped her.

"Catherine, are you ok," Vincent questioned anxiously.

"Just dizzy but no wonder; why would you trank me?" She angrily asked of JT.

"Told you, you weren't…you were real angry," he finally blurted out.

"Angry?" Catherine questioned with evident disbelief. "Not as angry as I am now I'm sure," she then threatened.

"Forgive me if I beg to disagree." The look on Catherine's face made JT nervous anew, "Hey calm down will you? You know I'm on your side right?"

Catherine was about to question him again but she realized that JT's voice had been shaky and that he had taken a step back from her as he spoke. That stopped her cold. "Why are you so scared of me?"

"Catherine, please, what do you remember last?" Vincent tried again.

"I…I was coming here…I remember parking outside the dungeon. Then…" Catherine's eyes opened wider as she stared directly at Vincent.

"What happened next, Catherine?"

"I…that's impossible," Catherine stopped and looked around the cell again as if she was afraid of losing touch with reality. "I must have been hallucinating…" she started again after a moment, her hesitation was palpable. She turned fully towards Vincent, touching his face and chest as if she doubted he was really there. "You were there… but you weren't…and then…oh my god, I saw you burning!"

"Catherine, calm down," Vincent uttered as calmly as he could muster, "you were having a nightmare. You're probably confusing that with what really happened."

"But…" Catherine halted again. Everything about this situation was wrong but never more than what she now remembered vividly. "You were burned at the stake and I watched and I couldn't do anything!"

"Ok, Catherine," Vincent said as he pulled her to him. He could feel her distress and was hoping that he could alleviate some of it with his strength. "Look, babe, I think you're confusing reality with the stuff you read in that damn journal again."

"First off," Catherine protested even though she didn't pull away from Vincent, "the 'stuff' in that journal was real."

"But it happened a long time ago," Vincent calmly replied. "Maybe the drug caused you to confuse reality with those stories for a moment."

"Rebecca never said how Alistair died in the journal. This I remember clearly. I don't think she could make herself write it down."

"Catherine how can you say that? How would you know what happened if Rebecca didn't write it down? And even if she didn't write it down, in your dream you probably made it up, based on what you know people used to do to monsters, that's all."

"Right!" JT approved. "Doesn't that make more sense?"  
>"Even if that's true," Catherine sat back as she hesitantly considered their explanation. "That still doesn't explain the collar around my neck and why you tranked me!" The shrill in her voice grew exponentially with each word. Then she pulled away completely from Vincent, stood and started pacing just outside the cell. That's when JT first noticed that they were alone. "Where's Matthew?"<p>

Vincent answered lightly, "he left a few minutes ago. Don't worry about it, I can track him any time I want."

"You knew and you let him go?"

"Come on JT, we weren't getting anywhere with him and I figured maybe I could track him back to whoever he's doing this for. Maybe even to that Jeremy."

"Smart…"

"You ain't the only one with a brain, JT."

"Jeremy," Catherine exclaimed. "I remember now, just before I… just before I blacked out I had a memory of an old boyfriend and I'm sure that was the guy who crashed Heather's wedding."

"You blacked out," JT picked up from her speech.

Neither she nor Vincent paid any attention to his inquiry however. "Old boyfriend," Vincent questioned Catherine pointedly.

"That was a long time ago…and obviously he wasn't a beast…at least, I don't think so," Catherine replied defensively. "I did have a life before you, you know," she added testily, even though she wasn't sure why she would need to defend her past actions just then.

"Of course," Vincent answered but the look on his face threw her for a loop. Instead of being upset as she thought he would be, Vincent actually looked relieved.

"You don't seem too worried about it now," Catherine questioned in turn.

Vincent acted as if he'd been caught at something. "Well," he finally answered, "like you said, you had a life before…"

The truth was that in his mind an alternate version of the earlier events had lifted an enormous weight off his shoulders. The thought that this Jeremy might be the one responsible for Catherine's transformation, while not a pleasant one, still meant that HE might not be. Deep down Vincent knew he should feel guilty to be this relieved in light of all that was happening but he just couldn't stop himself.

"So…," Catherine intruded on his introspection, "I'm glad you're taking it so well..."

Vincent could practically taste the disapproval but he wasn't ready for a relationship discussion. "Ok what else do you remember? Maybe something happened this morning before we got to the country house?"

"Nothing happened…Why would you think that?" Even as she asked this, Catherine was taking in her surroundings; first she saw the door that led to the cells lying on the concrete floor, and splinters of wood still hanging to the doorjamb. "Did the other beast do that?" She asked uncertainly as something flashed in her mind. A kind of rage like nothing she'd ever felt in her life. Then a clear image of another door flying through the air came to her. Ignoring the questioning stares from both JT and Vincent she quickly crossed to the lab and stared in utter disbelief at the very door she'd seen in her mind, laying at the other end of the lab. The door had splintered in two from the impact and a piece of the rock wall behind it had been cleaved from the velocity and force of that impact. The dizziness from earlier returned and she nearly lost her balance from the shock. Fortunately, Vincent was there to steady her. "I did that?" Catherine whispered in utter disbelief.

"I'm sorry Catherine." From the look on Vincent's face she knew right away that there was no point in denying what her mind was telling her anymore. She was now hyperventilating as the memory of the abject fear of earlier and then it all went black again.

"Catherine," Vincent asked worriedly. He'd sensed her distress as she experienced it. He'd always felt connected to her in a way he never connected to anyone but this felt even more visceral. He was reminded of the link he'd had with Tory and concern, not only for Catherine, but for what this could mean, spread its glacial tentacles through his guts. The thought of what it could mean for everyone around them overwhelmed him suddenly. An irresistible urge to get away overtook him next and, tightening his arms around an unconscious Catherine, he ran out to the street without a word to JT. Catherine's car was where she left it and as he neared it, he felt through Catherine's jacket pocket, quickly finding the remote that would unlock the car's functions. After delicately settling Catherine into the passenger seat, he hurried to the driver side and started the car. One last look toward the dungeon showed him JT coming out the door, obviously upset at what he was doing but Vincent didn't think he could explain his actions just then. So he gunned the car, narrowly avoiding another one as he turned onto the main street and drove away.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter IV

"It's been three days since that last message," J.T. complained, sitting beside Tess on the porch of Catherine's country house. "Three days and no news. And before that just a god forsaken text message saying we're fine, don't look for us! What if something happened to them or…god forbid they happened to someone…?"

"Ok, first off, I just can't wrap my mind around this Catherine is a beast thingy at all," Tess answered with a hint of annoyance. "I'm not any happier than you at not knowing but you got to stop talking about it, if only for a few hours."

"Aren't you worried?" J.T. questioned accusingly.

"Don't you dare," Tess spat at him, standing up in outrage. "She's my best friend in the world. Ever since you and your…your beast of a friend got into her life, she's gotten nothing but trouble."

For a moment J.T.'s emotions ran from anger to shame and back but when he finally answered, anger had won over. "I guess now I know where you really stand. And may I remind you that for all we know, your best friend was a beast all along. Just like Tory, she just didn't know it yet."

J.T.'s angry response seemed to subdue Tess a little. She knew she'd gone too far with her outburst in the first place but this waiting for news had both of them on edge. And that was nothing compared to Heather's state of mind. The girl hardly left her bedroom ever since she'd grilled J.T. on where her sister had gone and got the last answer she'd ever expected.

"Tell me again what you got out of her father," Tess asked a little more calmly. She understood J.T.'s mood very well in spite of her protest. Fact was that J.T. and Vincent had been stuck together for years and counted on each other completely for all that time. J.T. told her that other than the three months he'd disappeared last year, Vincent had never been out of touch for more than a couple days in those past ten years. And now, it had been a week and the only news they had received was a text from a burner phone sent to Tess's cell.

"I got next to nothing," J.T. replied. "The guy is infuriatingly cryptic. The one thing that struck me is the reaction he got to the news about Cat. He looked like he'd been punched in the gut, just like us… so I guess he couldn't be much help in the matter and he very likely had nothing to do with it. So we're back at this Jeremy guy and Heather's vanished husband."

"Still can't find either of them?"

"Not a trace, although I did find something about Matthew- Seems he's served in the military with counter intelligence. That might explain why the agency used him in the first place."

"And the agents?"

"Carson and Levy...? Yeah that's about all I know about these two. They're like ghosts who only show up when they please. And apparently it doesn't please them right now; although it was strangely cute of them to have arranged for the repairs to the house… I really don't get those guys. On the one hand they're mysterious and sinister and on the other, they're just plain helpful."  
>"You gotta admit, your recovery was nothing short of miraculous and there are no apparent sequels. That also goes on the positive for those agents."<p>

"Maybe I'll give them all the credit when they start acting above boards. Who knows, maybe they already know where Cat and Vincent are and they're not telling." J.T. bitterly replied.

"And we're back at this. I think I'm gonna go get a drink," Tess almost made it to the door, but J.T. stopped her by grabbing her arm gently. "I'm sorry alright? I know you care. I'm just so worried."

"I know," Tess relented, leaning against him. "How about we both get that drink?"

"Best idea so far," J.T. said, relaxing into a small smile. "You're right, there's no point in giving ourselves heart attacks. I'm sure they're ok."

"Wherever they are," Tess added leaning in for a quick kiss before taking J.T.'s hand and leading him inside the house.

At the edge of the large manicured lawn, a wooded area nearly surrounded the property, protecting the privacy of its occupants but also providing cover for someone wanting to watch without being seen. From behind one of the thickest trees at the edge of those woods, Catherine leaned over to see her friends going in. From her vantage point she could see and smell everything and most of all, the two men who were watching the property from a discreet distance and had probably been for the past week as far as she knew. A smile formed on her lips even as her eyes shined a bright yellow in the semi darkness of her hiding spot. Then she blurred away.

About fifty miles from the country house laid a large forested area and that's where Catherine and Vincent had been staying the whole time, nestled in one of the most remote cabins up on a forested hill. Catherine had to park her car on a gravel trail just off the main road since there wasn't a road leading up to the cabin, only a barely distinguishable hiking trail. She parked as far from prying eyes as she could and set up the hill towards the cabin and Vincent. All was quiet around the cabin. For added safety and to give herself some more time to think, she still walked the perimeter, trying to sense any change or presence but the only human heart beat for miles was the one she was expecting. Even as she listened to it from a distance, she heard the change that told her he knew she was there. Next thing she knew, Vincent's strong arms were encircling her. "Where did you go," he asked.

"Well, you know, looking out for our friends. They're fine by the way," Catherine replied even as she turned in his arms and her lips met his in a passionate embrace.

"I missed you," Vincent smiled, catching his breath in between kisses.

"I've only been gone for a couple hours. Thought you needed the sleep…"

His hands were exploring her lower back and now he pulled her tight against him, smiling hungrily, "I'm plenty rested…you?"

She had planned to have a talk with Vincent but maybe because she feared his reaction she allowed the animal passion to be reawakened in her and an almost feral smile played over her lips. Instead of answering, she pushed him hard to the ground and straddled him. "Boy," Vincent managed through his quickening breath, "that never gets old…" Then they tore each other clothes off impatiently and began making passionate love on the forest floor.

A week ago, Vincent had run off with her on instinct. He had not known what caused the change in Catherine or even the consequences of the change and he still didn't. The only thing he was certain of was that while in the beast form she had been out of control, and knowing her the way he did, Vincent thought the only way to help her was to keep her as far away from people as possible. He knew the particular area he'd driven them to because it was the same forest where his ex-fiancée had a cabin where he used to go with her often. Once there, he found a place that had not been in use for some time and was isolated for many miles around. He had just started a fire when Catherine came to.

"What are we doing here?" She'd questioned as soon as she got her bearings.

"Just thought it would be easier for you here…" Vincent had answered gently as he came to sit by her side on the tiny bed that occupied a corner of the one room cabin. "Not many amenities, I'll grant you," he continued apologetically, "but for now, I think it's the best place for both of us…"

"Are you sure it's not dangerous…" Catherine asked. "I… how did this happen," She suddenly burst.

"Hell if I know, Cat. I don't have a clue. I hoped maybe you did?"

Catherine looked around, mostly to give herself time to think. As she turned her head this way and that, she realized that the collar was still in place. The thing was seriously restrictive but at the same time, she feared removing it. For once in her life, she didn't mind being restrained.

"I'm sure it would be alright," Vincent told her softly, as if he was afraid he would break her fragile state of mind if he spoke too loud. Even as he spoke the words, he put his hands behind her neck, and began to work on the discreet locking mechanism. The collar's fastening wasn't extremely complicated but you had to know in which order to undo each links. That got him thinking of the ease with which Jeremy and Matthew had managed to remove it, twice, and the sense of unease deepened in him. But for now, he was determined to commit to Catherine's issue. The rest would still be there later. Before he could finish unlocking the collar Catherine pulled away from him. "What if I go nuts and hurt you?"

"Remember you once told me you weren't afraid of what I would do? I definitely am not afraid of you Catherine. And neither should you be of me. That's the only thing I'm sure of," Vincent told her with such assurance that most of her doubts melted away. She allowed him to remove the collar, which he then threw into the backpack he almost never went anywhere without and then sent it sliding toward the other end of the cabin. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm ok I think."

"Any more dizziness?"

"No…" Catherine's voice trailed as the first sensation hit her like a hammer to the forehead. Vincent's scent was suddenly so strong, it was overwhelming but, at the same time, she knew she craved it as if she'd been starved and was now presented with the lifesaving banquet she'd somehow known was there but could never quite reach. Then, even as she pulled Vincent to her almost savagely, her conscious mind gave way to a blissful explosion of the senses.

Long afterward, Catherine's conscious mind had somehow found its way back to her and even though she felt exhausted, her body sore and covered in sweat , she knew for sure she'd never experienced a more complete union in her entire life. For the entire time, she had not known where he started and where she ended. She knew him body and mind and he did her. She had no doubt about it.

"Wow," was all she could say as she laid on her back and simply tried to catch her breath.

"Hell yeah," Vincent breathed out, as he came closer and laid a lazy hand on her belly. "That was incredible, babe…If I'd known that's how you'd react, I'd have removed that thing much sooner…"

Even as her desire was already mounting again, a thought came unbidden and she grabbed Vincent and pushed him back forcefully, ending up straddling him. Her glowing eyes were staring into his own and in hers he could see desire but also a doubt forming. "Was it like that with Tory?" The simple fact that she could worry about this hurt Vincent viscerally. "You've got to know it was never about love with Tory, Catherine," He protested forcefully.

"It's not what I meant," Catherine hesitated. She was afraid that he might confirm her budding doubts and she knew that would crush her. "I mean…what if this isn't always like that? What if I'm…just human again…?"

"Beast or no beast," Vincent said, "I've never been more fulfilled than when I'm with you."

"But…"

Vincent stopped her with his finger on her lips. "No matter what, Catherine, you're the only one for me. No one ever came close, do you understand? No one," he told her this with such passion, she could have no doubt. "I love you with everything that I am and I never want you to forget that."

"I love you so much…" Catherine whispered before giving in to their passion once more.

For the next three days, they had hardly come up for air, only leaving the cabin once to get supplies and buy a burner. They used it only once to text Tess and then threw it out in a township almost thirty miles from their hideout. Catherine's sudden departure had been worrisome to Vincent but even though he had planned to grill her about her motives their passion has once again gotten in the way. Spent after their rump in the forest, Vincent and Catherine were entangled in a thick blanket in front of the fire.

"I got a confession to make," Catherine began a little hesitantly.

Still bathing in blissful contentment, Vincent didn't register the slight tremor in her voice. "Whatever it is, you can tell me anything, you know that," he said, sliding his arm underneath her and pulling her closer to him.

"Well," Catherine started, but then she stopped, as if she debated breaking this tender moment with any unpleasantness. "Ok, maybe I underplayed my little escapade…"  
>"Oh you mean how that was much longer than a couple hours?"<p>

"You knew?"

"Honestly, I might have questioned it at the time, but you took the discussion in a different direction," he confessed playfully even as his free hand slid slowly down her side, eliciting involuntary moans of pleasure from Catherine.

"Stop that," she haltingly said, "I'm trying to be serious here…"

"Alright, what did you do that has you so worried," Vincent questioned and in that instant, he really wondered and worried a little. This whole past week, things had been so much better than he had feared. And now he was afraid that the reality of what happened was going to catch up to them. In fact, he couldn't chase away a feeling of foreboding, which significantly had begun not long before Catherine had left the cabin. He still didn't understand it.

"Nothing so bad…I'm just worried you won't like it."

"Hum, and why is that," Vincent questioned a lot more seriously this time.

"I went to see my dad…"

"You went to see him in your condition?!" Vincent exclaimed. "What happened?"

"He's still breathing if that's what worries you," Catherine answered testily.

"You know I'm not worried about your father, Catherine."

"Don't I know it," Catherine retorted and Vincent knew she was referring to the near miss of a year ago.

"Now you're just trying to deflect," Vincent told her, not taking the bait this time.

"Alright, well, I have been a little less angry with him and I guess that helped. But other than the fact that he had nothing new to tell me, he was a little rattled…and not because he saw me as a beast."

"How is that?"

"Apparently, J.T. went to see him a little while ago."

"I see…" Vincent said but in a way that told her he wasn't sure he did.

"Look I'm sure he meant well. After all, just like me, J.T. knows my father is the only sort of expert we know on beasts. He was the logical one to contact."

"I'm just not sure about the wisdom of telling him about you…Look what he did to me and he'd had occasion to know what I was capable and not capable of. He didn't care. He only wanted me dead because I'm a beast, remember?"

The passion with which Vincent had spoken told Catherine that the bad blood did not go away just yet on Vincent's part. Honestly she couldn't blame him since her father had betrayed him so completely.

"See that's why I wasn't keen on talking about it."

"And not because you might have beasted out in a prison?"

"Things went mostly well actually," Catherine defended herself.

"Mostly?"

"Ok he might have riled me up just a little but I only started changing before I got it under control…"

"Catherine, that's why we weren't supposed to go anywhere by yourself in the first place…but wait…you say you stopped yourself? I still don't get how you got control over this so fast…"

Now Catherine detected the smallest hint of resentment, although she was secretly relieved he didn't question her on the why she'd almost lost it. "I really didn't get many occasions to lose control… well, not in anger anyway," she added in an attempt at levity.

Vincent looked away, sighing lightly. For a long moment, he said nothing…"I got a confession of my own to make," he finally uttered.

"What's that," Catherine asked as she pulled his face back toward her gently and wondered if he already knew.

"Look this whole week has been wonderful on so many levels, mostly because…"

"Because?"

"Because for the first time, I didn't feel like you were the only one having the high moral ground…" Vincent blurted.

"What do you mean," Catherine, questioned uneasily.

Vincent sighed a little louder, obviously worried that she wouldn't understand.

"Look Catherine, for the whole time we've been together, I've been…let's put it this way, I was the one that needed help, to put it mildly."

"I didn't mind." Catherine protested.

"Come on babe, you know that's not true…At least it wasn't always true."

For a long moment they both stayed silent, both remembering the many occasions where Catherine had used her own humanity as first a shield and then as a way to justify her disapproval of him. Most of it she regretted now, but what was done was done.

"I told you I never wanted to hurt you," Catherine finally blurted.

"I know you didn't Catherine," Vincent replied quickly, "and I didn't blame you for most of it. I was out of control a lot of times…and…that's why when I realized you had suddenly become a beast yourself…"

"You thought we would finally be on equal ground," Catherine finished for him, understanding dawning on her.

"Something like that…I know that might sound selfish or something but I mean after you went after this Jeremy, not to mention Matthew's arm…"

"Thanks for reminding me," Catherine pouted a little but then, incongruously considering the discussion they'd been having Vincent saw a somewhat mischievous grin play on Catherine's lips.

"What are you smiling about?"

"Well, I did do something a little impulsive."

"To your dad," Vincent asked immediately, only half reassured by Catherine's attitude. For a brief moment, he had been reminded of Tory and her cavalier attitude toward what constituted good behaviour.

"No…I did stop by the country house. That part was true. And there I found that our agent friends are still watching."

"That's good news…means they don't know where we are. Wait, what did you do?"

"Oh don't worry, I don't see how they could have followed me, not after I slashed their tires and then led them on a little wild goose chase through the woods…"

"Catherine!"

"What," Catherine exclaimed, feigning innocence. "Those guys are spying on our friends, and my sister. They're shady at best. I just thought they needed a little lesson that's all."

"How much did they see?"

"All they know is that some beast growled near where they were hiding and they followed the sound through the woods. I swear they didn't see me. I'm not stupid…for all I know, they now think it was just some wild animal."

"I'm not so sure it would matter all that much anyway…"

"What do you mean?"

"Remember what they told us? That they were watching both of us…I can't help thinking that they knew about you even before we did…"

Vincent noticed a hesitation in Catherine, as if she knew something about it but debated saying it out loud. Then, for whatever reason, she decided not to say anything but her eyes betrayed some anxiety. He was about to question it when Catherine answered indirectly.

"I guess it would be time to go back home…" she said regretfully. But then, she seemed to think better of it and the fleeting moment of worry he'd witnessed was all but gone, "but we don't have to go this minute right?"

"Really not," Vincent smiled, forgetting his own doubts when his desire for her buried any other concept in his mind. The hand that had been loosely holding her hip moved purposefully again.

"If you want, I could be the big bad wolf this time," Catherine added, somehow managing to get only her claws out and slowly dragging them down Vincent's chest.

"Hum," he managed throatily, "I guess I should start running…" but he contradicted himself by pulling her harder against him. "Then again I'm not really afraid of the big bad wolf…"

"So," J.T. began as soon as he arrived in the antechamber to Reynolds, Catherine's father, cell. "You're saying that she came to you?"

"Yes she did and she had a lot of questions of course."

J.T. paced the length of the small room he'd been led in. He was facing a man he positively hated for the second time this week and now that man had more news from his friend than he did. For J.T. this week from hell seemed to be getting worse and worse. "At least she said they were ok right?"

"If you could call that ok," Reynolds said. "She seemed…fine but…that shouldn't have happened. Did Vincent do something to her? Or you maybe?"

"Are you insane? Neither one of us could ever do that to Catherine."

"Honestly, the way Catherine behaved when she came here, I thought maybe she wanted it…"

"That's the last thing…" J.T. protested vehemently. "Catherine is in love with Vincent, not with him being a beast! There's a big distinction here!"

Reynolds who had been sitting on his cot suddenly got up and came closer to the bar, lowering his voice as he said, "Vanessa said...she seemed so certain. And she's thirty. It just doesn't make sense.

"What in the hell are you talking about?"

"Look it's complicated. Suffice to say I never thought...Jeremy told the family Vanessa did it, the rat bastard!"

"The family? You make it sound like the mafia or something. Catherine's only family is Heather and, to a certain extent, you."

"Our family is quite large on the contrary. As large in fact as Vincent's or Jeremy's. "

"Alright, I don't know why we keep coming to you; I think you're getting unhinged. Vincent's family is composed of one nephew and he's only been in contact with him since he came out in public eight months ago. The thing I retained from what you just said is that you do know about this Jeremy guy…"

"Of course I do. I had to provide the security measures. Obviously they weren't good enough…"

"Obviously! Add this failure to all your other ones," J.T. replied impatiently. "Anyhow, you summoned me here to talk this nonsense?"

"No, after she questioned me about her little problems…"

"Little problems yeah," J.T. interrupted.

"Yes, after we talked about that, I remembered about the notebooks, Rebecca's notebooks.

"What notebooks?"

"Rebecca's notebooks, along with a few other more recent additions; there's even one by Catherine's mother."

"Is that the same Rebecca whose journal Catherine was reading a few weeks ago?"

"Yes, one and the same. The journal in question was one of a series that she wrote. Catherine doesn't know about them but she did ask me in passing about some dusty boxes and women's clothing she saw in the guestroom closet. The journals are in those boxes and although in principle they are her property I'd recommend waiting for her to get used to her new situation before delving into the past. It would be a great service to her if you removed these notebooks from the room in question and stored them in a safe place…"

"And why would I do that? I mean that woman passed away a long time ago. What could be so dangerous in what she has to say that you'd be worried about it? Is your family really part of some mafia or something?"

"Or something…suffice to say that if those journals were to fall into the wrong hands, it could hurt a lot of people including your friends. Catherine shouldn't have to worry about those until she's better equipped to handle them."

Although J.T. recognized the very real possibility that Reynolds was right about Catherine at this time he couldn't stop himself from shaking his head in disbelief, staring all the while at this man who had caused so much pain in recent past and still believed himself on the side of right. Instead of answering Reynolds, J.T. knocked hard on the connecting door, and left without a look back as soon as the guard opened it for him.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter V

Heather was lying on the unmade bed she'd almost never left since her wedding disaster. However, contrary to what Tess and J.T. thought, she wasn't only holed up in her room to grieve. She'd finished reading the first notebook within a few hours of Catherine leaving. In them she'd already learned that beasts weren't a recent addition, not only to the world, but more importantly to Catherine's own family. After she'd read three of them in which a man-beast named Alistair occupied a very prominent place, Heather had been frustrated by a gap in the story. In fact, when she got to the next one, she realized that it was likely to be the most important one, and she didn't have it. At least she didn't until she snooped around the mansion while Tess and J.T. were busy elsewhere and she found the book in Catherine's room, already opened to the next to last page. Not one to want to jump ahead on a story, Heather had closed the book without looking at it and brought it back down to her room. When she'd finished it, she felt like crying, but it also did something to put Catherine's news in perspective; particularly because she'd already peaked at the first few pages of the next book.

At this point, Heather was convinced that this story could be some best seller if it was re written either as a script or a book. And she'd started taking notes. Deep down she knew that neither Catherine nor Vincent would approve but for the time being it was something to do to forget about her failed marriage. On the other hand, later in the week she congratulated herself for having done it when Rebecca's notebooks disappeared from the room the one time JT had convinced her to leave it for a while. Fortunately, she'd also put the other notebooks along with her notes in her bags, one in particular that was her mother's. That one, she had postponed reading until now. She both anticipated reading it and feared how she would feel about it. Meanwhile, she decided to play it cool about the books that had been taken and pretended it was nothing to her lest JT would come back and demand the rest. She only hoped Catherine would come home soon. What she'd found in there she knew was a game changer but one she hardly understood and she needed her sister's insight on that.

JT had indeed been a little surprised to find the notebooks neatly stacked near the closet instead of in the boxes as described to him. However Heather's lack of curiosity about his taking possession of the books reassured him that whatever she found in them was either innocuous or she didn't understand its import. Not that he put much credence in Reynolds's dire warnings but for Catherine's sake, he did as he asked. In order to take care of the second part of the request which was to get the notebooks to a safe hiding place, JT went back to New York to hide them in the sub-basement of the dungeon, where hardly any of them ever set foot. He'd figured they would be safe down there. He was stacking them into a recess worked into the brick wall when one of the journals fell open on the floor. When he bent to retrieve it, he saw that the book was opened on a page with the sketch of a young man with long hair and clothes that could only have been worn a couple centuries ago. Something familiar about the face grabbed him further, but it's when he examined the sketch closely that he truly felt that the world was closing in on him.

The man in the sketch, evidently drawn by this Rebecca he'd heard so much about from Catherine, looked almost exactly like Vincent. At the bottom of the page, a date had been written along with a name. September 5th of the year 1851, Alistair Keillor, forever my one and only love.

"I'm going to miss this," Catherine said to Vincent as they were walking away from the cabin that had sheltered them for over a week.

"I'm guessing it's not the lack of amenities you'll miss," Vincent quipped lightly.

"True, if anything it could have used a bathroom that wasn't a hole in the ground…but still…"

"I know what you meant." He looked back at the unassuming wooden cabin, and had an urge to simply go back and stay there. What awaited them back in civilization was less than clear. Catherine was certain she could deal by now but Vincent still thought she'd taken to it a little too fast. He worried that the stimulation of a greater number of people might cause the same problems for her as it did for him at first. But then again, although she did show lots of signs of a wild nature, her personality had not undergone any drastic changes for all that; another thing for which he was infinitely grateful. "Are you sure you're gonna be ok?" He still asked Catherine even as the cabin disappeared around a bend and they started down the path to where Catherine had left the car last.

"I'm as sure as I'm going to be. I just don't know how I'm gonna explain my absence from work."

"You know Catherine, you might never be able to do that job again. Detective work is very stressful and stress… well I don't need to tell you."

"I know you're probably right but I never planned on doing anything else my entire adult life. Besides, other than selling the country house what would I live on?"

"Hum," Vincent gave a little embarrassed shrug, "do you promise not to get mad if I use the T word again?"

"T word?" Catherine questioned although she suspected what was coming.

"Ok…after Tory died, a lawyer showed up at my door and told me that Tory had left me a significant part of her father's estate. I gave a lot of it away but given my situation…"

"Why wouldn't you tell me that?"

"Even before, Tory wasn't your favourite subject…and besides, we were kind of on a break at the time, remember?"

"Still, you could have told me after…"

"Honestly, things went real out of hands from the moment we got back together Catherine. First thing I knew the next day they arrested me and I became a fugitive. My assets were frozen, and then when I got exonerated, Gabe happened…and even though I'm a free man now, it took until last week before I could get all my affairs in order. Basically I was going to tell you… but then you became a beast and the rest you know."

"No matter, the idea of being a kept woman, of idling…that's not like me…"

"You don't think we have enough excitement in our lives as it is?" Vincent stopped in the trail and forced her to look at him. "Look, for the past ten years, I've been stuck living off J.T.'s salary and I couldn't really hope to repay him ever, or so I thought, so I do understand how you feel about this. But working as a detective would be way too risky for you and possibly even more for other people around you Catherine."

"What am I supposed to do," Catherine asked although the question was rhetorical. She'd already begun to see the possible consequences of her new situation. And from the look on Vincent's face and his lack of response, she understood he knew that she didn't need him to. Instead, she started back down the trail. Vincent followed her quietly for another couple hundred feet but a slight change in her posture just as they were nearing the car's parking spot told him something was amiss. They'd discovered another interesting fact about Catherine's beast during the week. Her senses were slightly more acute than even his own. She'd started tracking animals in the forest with hardly any coaching needed. That's why when he saw her suddenly accelerating, he quickly reached her. "What is it?"

"It was a familiar scent…almost like last week's beast scent," Catherine finished, obviously in a high state of agitation all of a sudden.

"Catherine, you know it can't be…"

"It's just so strong…" Catherine insisted and she blurred ahead without waiting for Vincent. He dropped the bag and started after Catherine, slightly panicked at the idea of what she might do. He needed not worry though. He found her holding a note that she'd obviously taken off the car windshield. "What does it say," he asked, trying very hard to hide the relief he felt.

"It says here that whoever has come is only here to deliver a message."

"What," Vincent asked but then he sensed her.

"Some woman...coming at us real fast," Catherine voiced his thought animatedly as she took a fighting stance.

Vincent also sensed the newcomer was a beast. A loud growl escaped his lips as he began changing just as the new beast stopped right in front of him. On instinct, he grabbed her by the throat, while she tried to kick him off. He would have finished her if it hadn't been for a curt warning from Catherine, "Vincent stop!"

He stopped himself from crushing her throat but didn't let her go just yet. Catherine approached them and she laid a calming hand on his arm, at the same time addressing the newcomer. "I don't know who you are, but if we all calm down, no one needs to get hurt." The female beast turned her eyes towards Catherine although she remained acutely aware of her opponent. Then she seemed to make a decision and her features slowly returned to human form. Momentarily, Vincent's did the same and he let go of her neck although he kept on watching her very closely.

Although she was a little out of breath, the woman hardly seemed fazed by what just almost happened. Catherine didn't know if it was just brashness on her part or if she'd really believed she could hold her own against them. All she knew was that the woman was challenging them with her eyes in spite of her apparent cooling off.

"I wouldn't make any sudden moves," Vincent warned when the newcomer turned towards Catherine.

"I'm only here because I was asked to track you down and give you a message. Trust me, being so close to you two isn't healthy for me. "

"We certainly didn't ask you to come here," Vincent told her. "Why would anyone…?" He had been about to ask why send a beast but then he thought he understood. That beast was also a tracker.

"Doesn't matter why," the woman evaded, "the message is this. We're done waiting…"

Both Catherine and Vincent saw no point in asking who the message was from. However the girl's strange outburst kept them rooted in place.

"And if I may add on a personal note, you two don't deserve any special treatment. Special my ass. If I had my way!"

"Again, no one…well we certainly didn't ask for any special treatment from anyone so…"

"Rachel," the woman answered the silent question.

"Well Rachel, you might as well be on your way and tell whoever that we'll get there when we get there." The mounting tension in Vincent's voice made Catherine uncomfortable.

"Vincent? What is it?"

"Catherine I just about had enough of beasts coming out of the woodwork with a superiority complex when what I really should be doing is ending their misery..."

"Hey calm down big guy." Rachel protested, already backing off.

"You should crawl back to wherever you came from before I decide that one less beast is a good beast."

"Vincent what's the matter with you?" Catherine was actually starting to worry she'd really have to intervene, but at the same time, she also felt an almost irrepressible urge to challenge her as well. Vincent all but ignored her and suddenly she thought she understood. "I suggest you hightailed it out of here," Catherine almost barked at Rachel with such authority to her voice it sounded more like an order than a suggestion.

Rachel seemed about to respond but a menacing growl quieted her. "Just try me." Catherine's eyes began to shine at this and although the beast in Rachel obviously was tempted to accept the challenge her brains apparently won out and she blurred away without another word. As Catherine watched, Vincent seemed to visibly relax as if he'd been held up with tight strings and those suddenly loosened. She herself found that she had been holding herself so tight it hurt physically. "Are you ok?" She asked.

Vincent hesitated a moment and Catherine got the impression that he was trying to refocus his mind. "I don't know what that was but I felt…this woman was challenging us and I was certain it wasn't the first time…"

"What do you mean?"

"I can't explain it. It's like those damn memories that make no sense at all…But then, maybe I'm just not good with other beasts around. Remember Tory?"

"You've not been like that with me," Catherine offered, although she also wondered at her own feelings of anger towards the woman who'd just left.

"Well, in your case it's a different type of out of control reaction. But then you know that…"

"I still wonder why she was so aggressive. We don't even know her."

"May I state the obvious and say…huh she's a beast," Vincent offered. "And by the way, they really are coming out of the woodworks."

"Is that an insult?"

"Why on earth would you think that?" Vincent asked, turning to her warily.

"Well, I've just turned into a beast last week…Maybe it's got something to do with that…"

Impulsively, Vincent went to Catherine and held her tight. "You know that's not what I meant," he pleaded with her.

While in Vincent's arms, Catherine felt that nothing could touch her, as if she was invincible. But this connected with the other feeling she just had when she felt an almost irrepressible urge to hurt the female beast the moment she felt her around. This out of control attitude was very in keeping with what she'd been displaying all week and she knew it wasn't like her. Right then, the fear of the beast that had been all but erased by the haze of happiness and lust she and Vincent has been sharing all week returned momentarily. By then Vincent and her were so attuned to each other's moods that he sensed her doubts even before she'd had a chance to formulate them and his mood changed radically, "Catherine if you're suggesting we should take a step back, I must tell you...in the past I would've done what you wanted but right now…I fear if you left me I might do something stupid."

"I won't leave you," Catherine replied very seriously. "I couldn't…I'm just afraid of what might happen if we lose control."

"I know…"

"There's also something else I wanted to talk to you about… The reason I went to see my dad…" Catherine added hesitantly. But she sensed something wrong even as she spoke. Vincent wasn't listening anymore. His eyes lost focus and he collapsed in her arms.

Catherine's face seemed to shrink away for Vincent and his vision tunnelled and everything around him changed. He was no longer quite himself and yet he was. But in that reality he was surrounded by flames that were quickly gaining until he began to burn. All around him he saw hatred all directed at him but when he saw her, everyone else disappeared. All he was left with was an excruciating agony and the horror he saw painted on her beautiful face. A pain more unbearable than anything he'd ever felt began coursing first up his legs, and then throughout his torso. He felt like every one of his nerve endings were howling at him to get away…get away from the flames but he couldn't. He had to protect them. Through the flames, he saw her, crying, howling helplessly, unable to do anything to help. Both of them had the strength of ten men but they both knew that escape from this crowd was impossible. All he'd succeed in doing if he tried would be to kill her too. But then, he was calling to her, begging her, "Kill me!" Even as his body repaired itself and the flames burned it anew in an unending agony. "Kill me!" He tried to scream again but he couldn't be sure that his throat emitted anything besides beastly cries of torment. His brain was beginning to shut down but even through that, he thought he saw her, Rebecca pulling a pistol from her skirt and aiming it shakily at him. A glimmer of hope for a quick end to his torment just as quickly vanished for he saw her turn away and shoot a random man in the crowd. It was rage most likely but he knew she wanted to hurt as well. Even as his mind was mercifully shutting down, the flames having reached his face and head, through them he saw Rebecca being overrun by the populace and beaten. Even as death finally took him, his last conscious thought was, "why?"

_On this March 10__th__ of the year 1855, It has been months since I lost him, betrayed him…I survived but for what? Maybe it is my punishment for not trusting in Alistair, and worst of all, for not helping him as he was suffering pains no one should ever have to endure. Some days, I feel such remorse, as I do now, I place my hand in the flames and do not take it out until I see the skin bubbling as his did while it melted off his bones but still regrew just to burn anew. Not until I hear my own howls of pain echoing in the dungeon that is now a prison of my own making do I stop until the pain of my remorse is once again worse than the physical one. But of course, just like him, I heal and it starts again. I will not end my life however. My punishment, I know, is to endure this suffering and this remorse until they're here and I can make amends if that's even possible. I owe him that. In the meantime, today I finally avenged some of what was done to you my love. The beast that killed you I cut him to pieces, made it last for hours and every single one of his cries for mercy were music to my ears. Even now, his body burns in the furnace, a fitting resting place for this monster. _

Tess had gone to re-join with J.T. after he told her what he found out. The more she read from the journal that followed the one Catherine had read a few weeks ago, the more horrified she got. "I can't believe this thing. And to think Cat said that the things happening to those people were happening to them as well!"

"I sure hope it doesn't," J.T. replied while a shiver ran up and down his spine at the memory of reading the journal himself earlier. The rest of the last journal Rebecca ever wrote showed a slow descent into madness. But not before she'd written down some things that J.T. hoped might help them. J.T. was actually researching this now in the only corner of the upper room of the dungeon where he could access wireless. He'd hacked long ago in some business that unknowingly provided the internet for him. "Took a lot of doing but I found a little known history book miraculously digitized. It was written by a woman named Rachel Ddraig. The reason it wasn't very well known is that she seemed to only have chronicled the lives of three families during the 1800s: the Reynolds, the Keillor and her own family, the Ddraigs. Plus it almost reads like a novel, not a serious historical account."

"Keillor…is that like Keller?" Tess asked, her curiosity piqued.

"Yeah it is. It's the old Scottish version of the name Keller, " J.T. replied distractedly as he went on reading, "Apparently, the first two families were feuding over some old offense the Keillor had supposedly done the Reynolds and they barely tolerated each other and only because they had some common holdings; and even a few common ancestors it seems."

"Well it's all real interesting but maybe we could get to the part about Rebecca and Alistair if there's one," Tess prompted. The more she read those journals, the more she understood Catherine's fascination with them. But the real clincher was what she'd just read. A passage she'd already read many times and always with the same horrid sensation at the pit of her stomach. And yet it also humanized beasts. But for all that, she got the distinct impression, as did J.T., that they shouldn't let either Catherine or Vincent read those just yet. There was something about these journals that felt just too real and hit too close to home in a way neither J.T. nor Tess cared to think about.

"Yes there is one and it's the only book in all my researches that has more than a vague reference to the execution of Alistair Keillor for murder and it also contains a copy of his death certificate. It's as if someone has gone out of their way to erase that part of history… The cause of death is not even listed properly on the certificate as if the coroner at the time had not wanted to do so. I checked reports from the same doctor during the same era but all his other reports and death certificates were in order. Alistair was the only exception and if I trust what I'm reading in Rachel Ddraig's book I think I know why…"

"What?" Tess asked uncertainly. She knew deep down that the description in the journal might just be the reason. "What did she say?"

"This woman said that the day of the execution, a large group of people were in attendance at first, including a very distraught Rebecca Reynolds, who apparently tried to get onto the flaming pyre but was prevented by a few men who could barely hold her back. Those people were calling loudly for the blood of who they thought was a violent serial killer, namely Alistair. Rachel said that the man was clamouring his innocence even after the fire had begun to consume him in earnest, but no one listened.

But then, Alistair didn't die right away. The pyre burned for over half an hour and he cried in agony for most of that time. By the time he died, even the most hell bent on revenge had gone silent and utterly subdued. So much so, according to Rachel, that they could hear his skin sizzle even over his screams of pain. Half the people watching didn't stick around to the end. They ran off in horrified disbelief, apparently crossing themselves repeatedly, saying the devil was on the pyre and he couldn't die. Others stayed in morbid fascination, and of those numbers, one was shot in the head by Rebecca in an apparent fit of rage. Those around her jumped her and beat her, probably because of her obvious connection to Alistair more than the shooting. Alistair allegedly expired during that time. When he stopped screaming, everyone stopped and it would seem that Rebecca used the distraction to escape. Rachel only mentions that the woman was no longer around when people remembered about her and at any rate, few of them cared by then The writer goes on to say that she waited until they extinguished the fire and the coroner had finished his exam to confirm that Alistair was dead. She said the coroner was pale as death when he turned away from what was left of the body. He kept mumbling about sending the devil back to hell."

"Well, I guess it's no wonder he wouldn't put that in his report." Tess tried her best to keep her cool but this account coupled with the journal, she knew she could never forget it.

"Right…" J.T. said thoughtfully, obviously just as shell shocked as she was. Then he seemed to shake it off and went on, "The last reference to those events speaks of the Keillor family reclaiming the bones of their dead relative. But we now know from the journal that Rebecca dug Alistair's bones out of the family plot and brought them here to this dungeon…. If we could find them…"

"You really think they're here," Tess asked, looking around, a little creeped out.

"This place is not so big. If there's a crypt of some kind, we'll find it."

"But how could some old bones help Catherine and Vincent now?"

"I don't know really," J.T. answered tiredly. "but ever since this all started, years ago, I have felt I was responsible for what happened to Vincent… What if…what if it wasn't me…what if..." J.T. stopped, unsure if he even wanted to voice his hopes in the matter.

Tess wanted to help him but she sensed it was better if he worked through the guilt on his own for now. She also didn't think J.T.'s guilt was anything like this Rebecca's. Nothing could come close.

J.T. skimmed the pages of the history book until he got to the last page and a short bio of the author herself. This, in and of itself, would have been a slight shock. In addition to the place of birth, a short summary of where the author had lived and ultimately died, apparently only two years after the execution, there was an entry about the name itself, Ddraig. The book related that the name in question was in fact the Welsh word for dragon and that in times pasts, the full name of her family had been "Pen Ddraig" meaning according to most linguists, Dragon's head… The writer who wrote the bio obviously concluded that Rachel Ddraig might be related to the first few kings of the Britons, long before England was what it is today. The English word commonly used for her full name being "Pendragon".

"Pendragon," Tess read over his shoulder. "As in King Arthur? Didn't even know that was a real name!"

"Well, I wouldn't want to bore you with all the details but, and really that's so weird now, Vincent took an interest in England's early history while in college. We had a few talks about that and I think I remember him telling me that the name Pendragon was only associated with Arthur by some monk and a few other writers long after the facts, in the 1200s and after. Arthur himself, if he ever lived, would have been born and died somewhere between 450 and 500 AD and no written account of the life and death of an Arthur Pendragon has ever been found. Pendragon was a name given to, among others, a king or prince named Uther, who the story tells us is Arthur's father. Many people think that King Arthur's story is in fact a historical dramatization of the life of some or other king of the Britons, maybe more than one, at the time of the Saxon invasion and that the details are muddled because the monk based his story on oral tradition rather than actual history."

"Alright that's all nice and good," Tess said then, "but how does that help us in any way?"

"I don't know really. It's just…don't you find it fascinating that Vincent researched the Pendragons and we stumbled on a book that relates to the execution of a guy that looked exactly like him and that book happened to have been written by a woman whose ancestors were Pendragons? Not to mention that according to that same book, their families had some kind of connection…"

"All a big coincidence if you ask me…" Tess replied. "Look J.T., it may all be just that, a gigantic coincidence!"

"I know coincidences, Tess. This is something else! It's like…faith or destiny or something!"

"Well, right now I'd settle for anything that would help us with Catherine's issue!"

J.T. sighed heavily but didn't argue the point. "Let's try to find this crypt. Who knows maybe the answers do lie in bones…"

"You're always such a romantic," Tess quipped.

"Funny," J.T. replied with a faked offended look.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter VI

The first thing Vincent's conscious mind registered was Catherine's heart thumping in her chest. The next was blood and lots of it. That should have alarmed him. Instead, the only overwhelming feeling that filled him in this moment was one of blind fury.

"Vincent, wake up," Catherine was calling to him.

He opened his eyes and the beast was already awakened in him. Before Catherine could react he had his hand around her throat. He was holding her so tight she could hardly take a breath and she reacted on instinct, beasting out in turn.

"Why?" Was all Vincent roared.

Catherine's overwhelming instinct would have been to claw at the hand around her neck but with a supreme effort of self-control, she instead asked, ""Why...Why what?"

Instead of answering, Vincent slowly released his hold on her, and the beast began to retreat. "What happened," he asked instead, confusion mixing with obvious fear of what he might have done.

Catherine sat back, her features human anew but she still hadn't quite caught her breath back. Her heart was racing from the stress of not only Vincent's reaction upon waking up but also of what she had to tell him next.

In the meantime, Vincent caught the scent of blood again, and this time it put him on high alert. "What happened, Catherine? Are you hurt?"

"No," she finally managed, "But I'm afraid you won't like what I have to tell you."

Vincent automatically jumped to what seemed the obvious conclusion. "What did I do?"

"What, no, Vincent, no, you didn't do anything…I mean besides passing out and screaming like someone was hurting you. You asked me to kill you," she finished in a little voice.

For a moment longer, Vincent couldn't figure a thing but then a glimmer of recall, of fire and hurting flashed into his mind. Then the last thing he'd seen was Catherine being attacked, but not the one in front of him, he knew now. The one he'd seen had been wearing very old fashion clothing. None of it made a lick of sense other than the fact that the pain and an unexplainable anger seemed to be lingering and that it had all seemed so real. "I was so mad at you," Vincent said hesitantly. "I don't know why, but I was furious that I died for nothing…"

"What?" Catherine's obvious confusion reflected his own.

"I don't know, alright, most of it is a blur…" Vincent then turned away from Catherine and in doing so he caught the strong smell of blood again and this time he saw the source of it. "Catherine what happened," he asked her as he got up and his heart raced anew at the sight in front of him. "Did I do that?"

Catherine stood and slowly turned to the macabre spectacle he was looking at. Rachel, the woman who'd given them the message and had supposedly fled earlier was sprawled on the forest floor, her throat raked almost to the spine by claw marks, her eyes wide open in death. Only then did he also notice that Catherine's blouse was torn and bloody, and that was the blood he'd smelled on her at first.

"How did this happen," Vincent asked again in a strangled voice.

"I think…I'm so sorry…she must have watched us from afar… I don't know. All I know is that when you collapsed, I sensed her coming back. I tried to talk her down but she attacked me and I… I had to do it. I was sure she wanted to kill us. I had to do it," Catherine repeated like a mantra.

Her distress was like a punch in his stomach. Vincent pulled her to him and held her tight, caressing her hair gently. "Catherine, I know you didn't have a choice…" She started crying against his chest and they stood there a long time, wondering what to do next…

_First of august of the year 1853, _

_Alistair and I we decided to go against them all. They will not accept us. My father still resents my refusal to marry this Jeremiah Ddraig he is so certain I am to be with. My heart and my soul are telling me clearly who I should be with and that is not this arrogant man. I do not understand how things have gone so far out of hand. If we have to, we will leave New York and never come back. Maybe we should not wait but Alistair and I we still hold some hope of reconciliation with our families. What is happening to us is difficult to deal with, and without help I fear it will be much more difficult. No matter, we promised each other that we would be there for one another even if no one else will._

"I guess that's pretty much when their troubles started," Tess surmised after reading a passage from an early journal.

"Still..." JT replied, "from a little rebellious behavior to being burned at the stake... I'm quite sure that it had more to do with that beast."

"Does Rebecca mention his name anywhere? I don't remember seeing it in anything I've read so far."

"Not that I've seen either. Matter of fact, I don't think she actually referred directly to Alistair as a beast either. Catherine inferred that she did mostly because others said he was, the gem and the dungeon, hence the confusion."

"Confusion?"

"Catherine seemed unsure the whole time whether Rebecca meant she killed her beast, meaning Alistair, or the other one. I must say she had me real confused about that anyway."

"But why wouldn't she?" Tess questioned. "I mean Rebecca."

"Could be as simple as fearing that someone would read her personal journal, which I think was a distinct possibility...but then why risk putting any sensitive information in it at all if that was her fear? Cause she's not shy about mentioning, and I quote, 'her beast'"

"Ok," Tess started a little hesitantly, "here's a real crazy theory if we assume that she wasn't just compelled to write down everything..."

"Yeah," JT encouraged questioningly.

"Well, a year ago I would never have even thought of it, let alone believed it possible..."

"Come on Tess, it's me you're talking to remember...the guy who's protected a beast for most of his adult life..."

"Alright, alright...what if the journals are meant for someone who might be living with the same thing she had to. You just said so yourself, when taken in the context of what she knew it doesn't sound so crazy..."

"Really not...Reynolds says he wants me to keep them safe, I'm assuming for Catherine. Also..."

"What's on your mind?" Tess prompted when JT stopped talking.

"Ok, you know how I thought that Rebecca became unhinged towards the end?"

"Yeah..."

"Maybe some of what she wrote makes more sense than I thought."

"And what do you base that on?"

"The reason I called you about was the incredible resemblance between Vincent and Alistair right?"

"Yeah, so what? I mean if the guy was related to Vince that's possible right."

"True enough, if he was the only one."

"What you found more of Vincent's relatives?"

"Not yet...but look at this old picture I just found of a Rebecca Reynolds, New York, circa 1850."

Tess stared at the picture for a long moment, shock plastered all over her face. "That's not possible!"

"Wait, there's more," JT added a little shakily. On a whim, I looked up the other family; the Ddraigs...Have a look at this family portrait made in the 1840s." Even before Tess complied with JT 's request, her hands were visibly shaking. She looked back at the screen and was floored by what she saw. The first picture, which had shocked Tess to the core, had depicted a young woman in old fashion clothing and manner of hair style. Even as grainy as the black and white had been, Tess had recognized Catherine's features immediately. And now the portrait, most likely a digital reproduction of a painting made to order, showed the man who'd crashed Heather's wedding. The man in the portrait seemed to be the man of the house from his prominence in it. Confirming this, the caption said that his name was Jeremiah Ddraig, head of the household. Then, Tess got a good look at the woman sitting beside him in the portrait. That very morning, the spitting image of that woman had shown up at the country house, inquiring about Catherine. The caption said that she was Jeremiah's sister Judith. When she had shown up she'd alleged being a cousin of Catherine's who'd just learned of her family connection from an uncle. When Tess had probed a little further however, the woman, who introduced herself only as Rachel, had become vague and excused herself very quickly. In hindsight, Tess remembered that the whole time they had been talking, the woman had been literally sniffing around, which had seemed more than odd to Tess but was now the scariest thing.

"JT, that woman," Tess indicated the portrait, "she showed up this morning at the house!"

"What?" JT exclaimed.

"And I think…I can't believe this… I think she was trying to catch Catherine's scent."

"She actually was," an intruding voice called to them.

Both JT and Tess turned at the same time, both of them reeling from the pictures they'd just seen and now one of the live versions stood in the middle of the lab with them. "Hi again, JT," Jeremy said. The man cleaned up a lot better than the last time JT and Tess saw him for sure, but the knowledge of what he was got them close to panicking.

"Hey don't be scared, I'm not here to hurt you. Although I will be collecting a few things that don't belong to you," Jeremy added, indicating the pile of Journals Tess had been loosely reviewing.

JT took a deep breath and went for it, "Those are supposed to be Catherine's," he said as firmly as he could muster. However even to himself it had sounded weak.

"Why? Because Rebecca wrote them? Sorry guys, this is beast business and the journals belong to us. Catherine can access them if she decides to re-join with her family."

"Her father wants her to have them," Tess interjected.

"That weasel! He barely qualifies as one of us. Father…pff…His only use is that he's so easy to manipulate. Always was a weak one…"

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"Long story but suffice for you to know that in this instance, he started out with greed and ended up a traitor and he got just what he deserved."

"You're not getting those journals," JT boasted, deciding to ignore Jeremy's tirade. Although to be truthful he would have to admit he really didn't know what he could do to stop a beast from taking them. Even if he had the trank gun with him, the only way to stop him from coming back would be to kill him and JT wasn't certain he could do that. So far this beast had not done anything more than fight Vincent once as far as they knew.

"I see the little cogwheels are turning in there," Jeremy mocked. "Well you are a smart man, I'll give you that and as such you must know I'm leaving with those journals no matter what. However, I would much prefer to avoid any bloodshed. Mostly because the little prince wouldn't be the only one after me and it could get messy."

JT wanted to protest further but Tess put a restraining hand on his arm. "Look...take what you want, just leave now," She told Jeremy as calmly as she could muster.

"I will do that, but I'll do you one better. By now, I'm sure you've understood that beasts are nothing new and also that the situation is a lot more complex than you imagined, right?"

When neither JT nor Tess answered, Jeremy went on, "about ten years ago, I still held some hope that I could get it all in this incarnation… but something went awry and my plan fell through. But now, I probably can get most of it all back and I won't let anyone get in my way…"

"What are you talking about again?" JT finally exclaimed.

"I'm actually giving you an out on your guilt business, along with fair warning, so I'd listen if I were you."

JT stared contemptuously at the man, his fear momentarily forgotten. "What the hell do you know about my so called guilt?"

"I know that ten years ago, I'm the one that sent the Muirfield data your way when Vincent fortuitously decided to enlist. Obviously I knew he was a perfect candidate. Hell, he was the ultimate candidate, since the original serum used an earlier version of his DNA…"

"What?"

"Yeah I know, complicated right? The long and short of it is this. My plan was to jump start him with his own beast DNA in the hope that he would go full beast again," Jeremy said wistfully. "The good old days," he sighed, obviously recalling some or other moment he was the only one privy to. "Anyhow, damn him. Instead of doing what I hoped he would, he survived and took back his control. I was seriously disappointed about that, to say the least."

"The serum they gave him wasn't…," JT questioned shakily.

"I guess the treatment had the bonus effect of destroying some of that bastard's memory," Jeremy went on, ignoring JT. "That's probably why he's been after an entity called Muirfield all this time instead of me. That, or Vanessa really didn't tell him anything. Must be it…"

"And telling me this now is supposed to help you how?" JT spat, furious not only to be ignored but also because of the way he was talking about his friend. So much so that he took a threatening step towards Jeremy without thinking.

"Help me? No it's supposed to help you. It wasn't entirely your fault you see. And by the way," Jeremy smiled cruelly, "OH scared… Oh well, what's done is done. Sad thing is it didn't work out. For me anyway...He survived. Catherine found him or he found her… Who's counting anymore? And even if I were to do anything to him now, that certainly wouldn't win her over. I'm not sure if your agent friends didn't do me a favour though. I guess even they don't know enough about beasts. Sending a female close to her mating cycle to find them might prove fatal to one or both of them. Who knows, maybe they did on purpose…"

JT shook his head in total disbelief; most of what this beast was saying made very little sense. One thing bogged him about the whole speech though, "Forgive me but if you were so hell-bent on hurting Vince and keeping him in the dark about his past why in the hell did you help him heal the last time?"

"Good question…smart," Jeremy strangely demonstrated his first sign of uncertainty since he entered the dungeon. "I'm not entirely sure, I'll admit. Something in me got me to do it. But hey, at least if he comes at me again, it'll be a fair fight! Who knows, maybe she'll see it like it was in the old days, and after I won, she'll become my mate. Now wouldn't that be grand?"

Without waiting for an answer to his blatantly rhetorical question Jeremy quickly grabbed the pile of journals and blurred away before JT or Tess could react.

Both of them remained speechless for a long moment, staring at the empty doorway in total disbelief. Finally, it was Tess who broke the stunned silence. "Ok, he's officially insane!"

"I gotta admit the guy is coming unhinged for sure. I mean what the hell was all that? And the fact that he's also a beast is more than just a little frightening…"

"Do you think there was any truth to what he said though?" Tess questioned wonderingly.

"Which part? Frankly, I don't think there's much coming out of that mouth that was worth remembering now."

"But what he said about the experiments? Muirfield? What if he's telling the truth about that and he did send you a special batch to trap Vince?"

"He also said he supercharged it with his own DNA, that's stupid…" JT's voice trailed, as a thought began to form in his mind, or to be exact a very disturbing train of thoughts. "Wait…when he came home, I isolated some kind of compound in his blood that contained cross species DNA, that's a fact…"

"But…"

"At the time, I didn't stop to reconcile my doubts with the fact that was staring me in the face. Vincent was a beast and there was no denying it. So whatever I found that wasn't there before…or so I thought…"

"What do you mean? Of course it wasn't there before…"

"After what we've just seen you don't have the slightest doubt yourself?" JT questioned incredulously.

"Look, I'm new to all this, but if it quacks like a duck…"

"Maybe this duck was just hiding in Vince's DNA all along…"

"And how can we be sure of anything now?" Tess asked.

"All I know is that if it's true…it's no wonder I couldn't cure him from being a beast! You don't get cured from who you truly are…At least science hasn't gotten this far."

"Ok…that's a little much for me but still, what should we do now?"

"Well," JT began a little hesitantly, "now, we find these bones," he finished with more assurance. "You saw what I saw right?"

Tess nodded hesitantly, but she couldn't really deny it.

"I have this sneaky feeling I know what we're going to find in Alistair's bones. If there is any usable DNA in them of course…"

"Yeah, like I said I'm no scientist but even I am catching on," Tess replied. "Now what about that woman he mentioned?"

"Didn't those agents leave a card or something? I'm not sure we can believe anything this Jeremy says, but just in case maybe it would be time to give them a call…"

"Alright, I'll do that... and you start on the search for bones… life with you is mighty weird you know that," Tess added.

"And you love it, I'm sure!" JT joked, even as he headed deeper into the dungeon, not waiting for an answer to his quip. Tess watched him go with a mix of exasperation and amusement before getting her cell phone and heading out.

"So, what DO we do?" Catherine asked hesitantly. After all they had gone through, and all the buried bodies, this one still didn't sit well with either one of them.

"As much as I'd like to do the right thing the fact is it would be hard to explain, and it looks a lot like an animal attack so..."

"That's because it is," Catherine replied bitterly. She took a deep calming breath after seeing the pained expression Vincent turned toward her. "It's just the idea of leaving her like that..."

"If she's not found, we'll call it in so she'll have a proper burial, but I don't see much of a choice. Anything else we do will lead the authorities right back to us."

"Still feels wrong."

"Look I'll do what you think is best but what could be gained by us risking incarceration? Remember now, you're not what you used to be and, at any rate, even if it was clearly self-defense, no one's gonna believe it."

Catherine bit her lip uncertainly. Then she stood straighter, obviously having reached a decision. "I'd prefer doing the right thing as well but in this case the right thing is probably your way. The world is not ready for the likes of you or I. You're right about that."

"Alright, I'll carry her up the ridge and closer to another hiking trail. I saw some bear tracks out there. With a little luck they won't look further than the obvious."

"What about her car?" Catherine asked. "I'm assuming she didn't get all the way here on foot, beast or no beast."

"The best thing to do is to get rid of it. I'd rather no one else found out about this place just yet. It's a good place for us to retreat to if things get ugly. Even if it's now kinda obvious we can't hide from other beasts..." Vincent finished dejectedly.

"It was my fault," Catherine suddenly burst out. "If I hadn't played that trick on them she'd still be alive."

Vincent instantly pulled her to him, knowing too well what she was going through. "Listen Catherine, I know you may not believe me now but eventually you'll be ok. You couldn't know what would happen. Not in a million years."

"But that's the thing, Vincent. That's what I wanted to talk to you about."

Vincent pulled away and stared questioningly at her. Then he seemed to think better of it. "I believe we better do what we planned before something else goes wrong… then we'll have this talk." The fact that Catherine couldn't look him in the eyes really made him uncomfortable but not so much that he even considered Catherine could have done the wrong thing. Certainly not on purpose and, when she gave him a little nod of assent, he simply grabbed the body and left without another word.

In the end, they decided to drive the woman's car all the way back to New York, leaving it in an area notorious for their chop shops. They wiped it clean of prints and left the keys in the ignition. It was doubtful this car would ever be found whole again, knowing the way the thieves worked. Having done this would probably ensure a longer delay in identifying the woman and that was all the better for them.

Then they headed for the only place they thought might still be safe from the prying eyes of the authorities and the agency, although that last part was less than certain. "We shouldn't park anywhere near the dungeon. And also, maybe we should sense ahead if there's anyone inside," Vincent cautioned.

"Agreed," Catherine answered shortly. Ever since they left the woods and headed home, Catherine had been mostly silent, answering any question with monosyllables. She was so obviously distraught that Vincent decided to give her some more time. However, the things she had intimated before, coupled with his own nightmare, which although fuzzy still left him shaken, rendered him anxious to know what she was keeping from him. She'd even gone to her father with it before talking to him and Vincent knew from experience that that wasn't a good sign…

"Found anything yet?" Tess asked when JT walked back into the lab.

"Nothing," he replied irritated. "This place isn't so big. Unless Rebecca had some other dungeon I'm afraid we're missing something."

Tess sighed in annoyance. "If those two hadn't run off the way they did..."

"Meanwhile did you get an answer?"

"I managed to talk to one of them yeah...Agent Carson denied having sent anyone but I got the distinct impression that he was just following their standard denial procedure."

"And after that they expect us to trust them..." JT sighed. "Typical!" JT sat down heavily. It was obvious to Tess, if not to him, that he needed sleep. She'd come to understand just like Vincent before her that JT simply fell over when exhaustion took him. She guessed maybe it was something to do with research, which he appeared hard pressed to stop when on a trail.

The laptop pinged just then and JT immediately became more alert. He still hesitated grabbing the computer. "What were you searching for," Tess asked, curious herself.

"Honestly I'm not sure if I want to find something or not anymore."

"Why would you say that? What were you looking for?"

"Ok you know how you said this was most likely a gigantic coincidence?"

"Well not much else makes sense..."

JT gave her a pointed look at that, "Those coincidences they're starting to add up to something almost unimaginable. Even if that would make what I did a little less bad, I'm not sure how good it is for Vincent." He didn't wait for an answer and instead he turned to the laptop a little reluctantly. He'd hardly set eyes on the screen when the door to the street opened, getting his full and immediate attention. "We really got to replace the lock on that door," he said while tensely reaching for the trank gun he'd elected to keep around from now on. Jeremy's little visit had rattled them both.

"Honestly," Tess replied as she stared at the inner doorway, still devoid of a door after Catherine destroyed it only a week prior, "the kind of...people coming here don't seem to be bothered by three inches thick doors, let alone locks," she finished nervously.

"Don't shoot," came the familiar voice of Vincent just before he crossed the inner threshold. "I'd prefer staying conscious right now," he joked.

Both JT and Tess whooped at this, their relief something almost solid. "Finally," JT exclaimed, "we were starting to think you forgot about us."

"Sorry about that," Vincent apologized, although his long-time friend recognized that the apology was really only for their benefit, not that Vincent truly was sorry. In truth, other than being a little stressed out, Vincent seemed much better than the last time he'd been in the dungeon. He was about to ask where Catherine was when she followed him in. Although also obviously better rested, her hesitant manners immediately put JT on alert. "What happened," he asked as soon as she was inside.

"That obvious?" Vincent asked in turn. "I should ask the same thing. When I came through that door I got the distinct impression that you feared it was someone else."

"The same beast as last week," Catherine spoke up "I can smell him all over this place."

"You're right," Vincent added. "What did he want?"

"You two are so spooky now," Tess exclaimed with a hint of unease.

"You took the words right out of my mouth," JT said then. However, and considering what he was beginning to find out about his friends, JT didn't seem too fazed by their actions.  
>"How do you see that and not freak out a little?" Tess asked.<p>

"Practice," JT replied immediately. "You think living with a genuine monster…no offence Vince…"

"Almost none taken," Vincent half joked.

"Well anyway, after all that time, this stuff is a little more familiar to me than it is to you. I'm still getting used to two of you though," JT finished, staring at Catherine.

"You still haven't answered," was all the response she gave.

"Yeah, he was just here in fact, maybe an hour ago."

"And he wanted?" Vincent asked again.

"Journals…"

"Journals, plural?" Catherine's interest was suddenly piqued. Something came back to her, from before the whole beast thing had happened. "Were those journals at the country house?"

"Yup, and your father sent us to retrieve them for you. I thought you knew since he said you visited him. Which by the way…"

Catherine interrupted, "He never mentioned those to me and frankly journals were the last thing on my mind when I went to see him."

JT was about to ask her something but Vincent stayed him with a holding gesture. "We never finished this conversation, Catherine…I would like to know what you talked about with Reynolds now…"

The annoyed expression on Catherine's face was clear. "For one, the big elephant in the room…Thanks to JT here, I could barely place a word in that part of the conversation…"

"How was I to know he had no clue what happened. Your father seems to run in circles we know nothing about. And, I might add, we need to know about…"

"That was partly my point in going to see him. That and a spooky recurring dream I've been having…"

"Catherine?" Vincent asked uncertainly. "I thought we decided to share everything."

"And I was about to tell you…you know before the interruption earlier…"

"What interruption," JT questioned.

"Later please JT .," Vincent snapped. Then he seemed to think better of his own attitude. "Sorry, it's just there's stuff that happened…"

"That was my point. If we want to help each other, none of us should keep secrets right now…"

"And we'll tell you everything but one thing at a time," Vincent replied more calmly. Seeing Catherine still hesitating to talk, he turned to JT, "I promise we'll share everything later on, but if you don't mind…"

"Come on Tess," JT agreed but with a hint of reproach, "seems the two lovebirds have issues again. We all know their issues can be a little physical…to put it mildly," JT added, amused at his own quip. "Besides, we have some bones to find, remember Tess."

Tess made to follow him then but she stopped an instant before heading down into the dungeon's basement with JT .. "We really need to talk, Cat."

"I guess we really do?" Catherine questioned curiously. "Bones?"

"Later," Tess reciprocated the slight before leaving the room.

"So," Vincent started. "What is that dream you went to talk to your father about? And why not to me?"

Catherine gingerly came to stand before him. "You know how you seemed to remember parts of a dream and it really spooked you?"

"Yeah, the pain did a number on me too…"

Catherine remembered her distress at seeing him in such pain after he collapsed earlier and before she answered, she caressed his face as if to quash the bad memory with her touch. "Well, I had a similar experience yesterday morning…"  
>"Why didn't you tell me?" Vincent questioned testily.<p>

"It wasn't about you…I just had the strangest and most disturbing…I don't know… vision or memory or just my wild imagination. I couldn't tell but it was so vivid, so real…"  
>"What," Vincent insisted. Although seeing her distress he couldn't resist being mollified and he encircled her waist, pulling her to him protectively. "You know you can tell me anything, Catherine. I've seen terrible things, you know that."<p>

"But those terrible things, I wasn't the one doing them…"

Vincent felt a twinge of worry but he kept silent.

"I remember doing something…something so horrible…I can't really believe I'd have forgotten doing it. And yet, how could I dream such a vivid dream if there wasn't any truth to it?"

"Please, Catherine, let it out…"

"During the week, I remembered bits and pieces of becoming a beast. Nothing much, just images and smells, sounds…you know..."  
>"I do know," Vincent encouraged her.<p>

"Anyway, in my dream... in my dream, I remembered I had been a beast before." When he didn't comment, Catherine wondered somewhat but she still went on, "Vincent I was torturing someone!"

Vincent still kept silent but she felt him stiffening. Catherine was afraid to go on but she knew she had to. Somehow, without knowing exactly why, she knew the horrible dream was related to the story she'd read in Rebecca's journal. Although in her dream, she couldn't seem to separate Rebecca from herself. "If," she started again, "as I think, I'm somehow remembering something through that dream, all I know for sure is that I woke up with the same anger I felt through the other one in the dream." Catherine sighed woefully before pursuing, "Vincent, I also felt her pleasure at hurting someone…the same man/beast that was here…"

This time Vincent pulled back and she thought the temperature suddenly dropped. "What do you mean?"

"I didn't do anything to him…now…But in the dream, he was the same and someone else at the same time. Someone really bad, of that I was sure… But in the end, I also knew I had become just as bad, no matter why I did it."

"What are you saying?" Vincent asked reluctantly, although he feared he knew where she was getting at.

"Remember how my father told me you could lose your humanity in time?"

"Yeah…painfully," Vincent said.

"When I woke up from that awful dream, I got so scared I had to go talk to him. He's really the only one I could think of to talk to about it. But then, when I got there and he started on my becoming a beast and it being your fault…I got really angry."

"How angry," Vincent warily questioned.

It wasn't Catherine who answered the question although his eyes never left hers.

"Well, he's still alive," JT offered, as he re-entered the lab. "Sorry, didn't mean to eavesdrop but…never mind I did. I know you think it's all personal but you didn't give us time to tell you what WE found out."

"Maybe we could offer our assistance as well," Agent Carson called from the inner doorway.

"Alright," Tess grumpily said, "this door needs a serious lock!"

"Sorry for the intrusion but we got to thinking that waiting for you to come to us might take too long. Particularly now."

"What's special about now?"

"First maybe Miss Chandler and you could help us with a little issue we have? Seems that one of our helpers, let's call her that, was found mauled in the mountains a hundred miles north of here. For all the authorities know she seemed to have been hiking alone and was attacked by some bear…"

"Sorry to hear that," Vincent replied insincerely. "Maybe the woman provoked the bear somehow…"

"We'd really like to know what she could possibly have done to this "bear" that it would attack her."

"Would you all stop talking in riddle," Catherine burst out angrily. "We all know what we're talking about and you shouldn't have sent a beast after us!"

"What did you do?" JT practically screamed.

"She wasn't in any way supposed to harm you… and forgive us, but from our point of view she kind of got hurt herself instead…so you see our quandary here…"

"She attacked Catherine," Vincent told them. "She didn't have a choice but to defend herself."

Agent Carson moved further into the room and they now could see that he was followed by his partner they now knew as agent Levy. This one was carrying a trank gun and training him on Catherine and Vincent ostensibly.

"That's what we're hoping happened," Agent Carson answered, "although Catherine doesn't seem worse for wear…"

"You have some nerves. You sent a beast and she..." but Catherine stopped mid-sentence, turning pleading eyes toward Vincent. "I…what if she wasn't really attacking me? What if I…"

"Catherine I know you. I know you didn't go after her."

"You were unconscious, you didn't see anything."

"Stop that Catherine. I know you didn't because you couldn't. That dream you had, I know that's all it was a bad dream."

"Wait now," Tess interjected… "This Jeremy, when he came here he said he thought you might have sent her on purpose…Are you just pissed because she missed?" Tess stared down Agent Carson, trying to ignore her friend's guilty expression.

"I don't know what Jeremy told you…but we only sent her because she offered to help and we had no other way to find them," The agent defended his action.

For a long moment Tess stared at the agent with fury in her eyes but his apparent sincerity wore her down. "It's still mighty strange that the person you sent attacked our friends."

"It bears to repeat, pardon the tasteless pun, but the fact is that she's the one who paid the ultimate price."

Meanwhile JT had been focussing on Vincent and Catherine and he started wondering about what she told him. "What dream?" JT asked then.

"What are you on with that dream business?" Tess whirled on him irritably.

But in a small voice, Catherine admitted reluctantly, "the one where I think I remember killing this Jeremy beast…by torturing him…"

"First off, you couldn't have done anything to him. He was just here!" JT replied, half relieved. But then he got to wonder why Catherine would say something so outrageous. Her next words somewhat clarified it but made the whole thing sound even more preposterous.

"I don't mean the one you've all met…I meant the one Rebecca killed."

"No way, come on Catherine, you're just confusing what you read in the journal with reality," Tess offered as an explanation.

"What was Jeremy doing here?" Agent Carson asked in turn.

"He was here for the journals," JT answered automatically. "The jerk!"

"You talked about more than one journal before?" Catherine questioned, "I only knew of one and I know that Rebecca never mentioned torturing anyone in that one…Where are they?"

"He took em," Tess replied dejectedly.

"How could you let him get those?" Catherine's voice rose in pitch as her hold on herself began to slip.

"Ok," Vincent interjected, seeing that everyone present was getting seriously worked out. "Maybe everyone should take a step back…I know I could use one," he added as his own adrenaline coursed dangerously fast in his bloodstream. He could also feel Catherine's control being chipped away in spite of the remarkable discipline she'd displayed until now.

Somehow the relatively understated request did have an effect. Agent Levy even lowered the trank gun, to Vincent's and Catherine's obvious relief. Tess and JT took a mental and physical step back.

"Maybe Vincent is right. We are very willing to believe that Rachel may have crossed the line. She wasn't exactly a paragon of virtue. It's just…so far she hadn't done anything that would make us doubt her motives."

"I'm sure there's an explanation for her behaviour but Catherine isn't responsible for it," Vincent categorically said. "Now, I'd like to take a moment with her alone. We're not running," he quickly added for the agents' benefit. "We just need to finish our conversation and then, we'll see with all of you what's to be done, alright?"

Vincent didn't wait for an answer from any of them. He pulled Catherine by the waist towards the cell room and for good measure, got into one of them. "Maybe now is the time for you to tell me exactly what's going on…Starting with that dream and then the girl."


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter VII

"You don't think I really hurt her on purpose do you," Catherine replied, a little startled at his apparent change of heart.

"Actually no, Catherine. But I need you to believe in yourself as much as I do."

"I still killed her," Catherine sighed shakily. "I just can't get the sight of her out of my head…"

"And that's exactly why I know you didn't lose control, Catherine. You're you and that person I know and fell in love with is incapable of hurting anyone for anything other than absolute necessity. Life or death situations and nothing else."

"But what about my dream? I know in that dream I did purposefully hurt someone and I didn't care…"

"Catherine, that dream, memory or whatever the hell that was…it wasn't you. It's most likely some nightmare your mind concocted because of you becoming a beast. Maybe you feel guilty about that and you're punishing yourself."

"Vincent I wish it was that simple. Those dreams as you call them, they're too vivid, too clear. It's not my memory exactly, I know that. And I know you're gonna tell me again how the journal had too much influence on me but there it is, I think I am remembering what Rebecca did."

Instead of the denial she expected from Vincent, her speech was met by silence. She turned to him curiously. "Vincent?"

"I'd say that's insane…unfortunately, I don't have that luxury," he finally uttered with obvious reluctance.

"What do you mean?"

"Well remember when I passed out earlier? I had a very vivid vision of my own."

"Go on…" Catherine sat on the cot and she grabbed his hands pulling him towards her. "You think I won't like what I hear…that's it, right?"

"That and frankly, I'd give just about anything not to remember even the little I do…"

"You said I could tell you anything...why would you think you can't do the same with me?"

"Alright...but keep in mind I only got bits and pieces. It's like someone tried to erase it but did a piss poor job of it...or like PTSD where you get only flashes..."

Catherine tightened her hold on his hands as a show of support but she didn't dare say anything just yet. It was clear to her that whatever it was must be painful even just to recall from the hesitation Vincent displayed.

"First you must understand...she wasn't you...but she looked exactly like you and I don't think I'd ever been angrier with anyone before...and that's saying a lot."

A short intake of breath was Catherine's only outward reaction but to him, she was an open book and her suddenly racing heart gave him pause. "I shouldn't go on...that's only gonna upset you and you don't need that."

"No way," Catherine exclaimed. "You can't tell me something so...you can't stop now," she finished in a slightly calmer voice.

"Alright…I believe I relived the last moments of this Alistair from the journal. Or at least, that's the only thing that makes any kind of sense even though I haven't read that journal and I can't understand how I could remember any of that," Vincent seemed to get more agitated by the moment and Catherine could understand his distress. This whole thing made absolutely no sense. Not what he was telling her now, not any more than what she thought she remembered.

"You said you were very angry," Catherine asked, "do you remember why?"

"Actually that's the strange thing about it. Catherine what I remember it's god awful. This guy, he burned alive for a very long time…and all this time, all he could see was her in the crowd, crying and desperate. And yet, it's when she tried to help him that he got so damn mad."

"What do you mean, he burned a long time?" Catherine asked as somehow, she was beginning to feel the same agitation he did.

"He regenerated…" Vincent answered with a pained expression that told Catherine even at this moment he was almost feeling the agony Alistair had.

The horror of what he was saying struck Catherine in the gut. So much so that she started to lose control. However, she wasn't sure if it had to do with the revelation of Alistair's ordeal, or if it was because she sensed Vincent also losing it, probably in self-defense. The next thing she knew, they were both beasts and Vincent caught her by the throat, same as before, except this time, he simply held her back. She could feel the herculean effort he was making and once again it took all of her self-control not to attack. "Vincent," she growled.

"Why would you risk dying, killing them after what I endured!" Vincent screamed at her, so loud that the others came running from the other room in a panic.

Catherine obviously had no answer for him and she wasn't too sure he even knew what he was saying anyway. But then, even as she saw the others coming in, she suddenly got an insight, she wasn't even sure if it was a deduction or something she must have known in the first place. She saw Agent Levy lift the trank towards Vincent and seeing what would happened, she forcefully pulled Vincent's hand from around her neck and stood between him and the agent. "DON'T!"

"He's gonna hurt you," Tess exclaimed.

"LEAVE!" Catherine screamed so loud, the walls seemed to vibrate around them. Even Vincent was startled by the scream. When she saw that the agent was aiming the gun at her, she tried to calm her beast as much as she could, "please, you need to leave us alone. He won't hurt me. Just leave."

For a beat, the agent kept his finger tight on the trigger but it was J.T. who stopped him. J.T. was very worried still, but those two were his best friends and he was convinced that they could hash it out and that it was even necessary. With the hope that he wasn't wrong about it, he said, "Let's go."

"Are you nuts," Tess protested. "We're not leaving," she went on, "trank them and we'll deal with it later."

"No!" J.T. insisted firmly. "It's not our place. Come on Tess, they'll be fine. You know that, don't you?"

Tess stared at Catherine, shocked at the change in her, but also at the helplessness she felt. J.T. was right. There was no way they could help them, but it still hurt so much that she couldn't. Slowly, she backed out of the room, staring pleadingly at her friend the whole way.

"Mr. Agents…Let's leave them alone."

Surprisingly, the agents only hesitated a second or two before backing out of the room as well.

"Don't make me regret this, Cat. I love you both…" Then J.T. turned and left as well.

Behind her, she could feel Vincent's glowing eyes staring at her. "I know why you're so angry. At least I think I do. But you're wrong…Rebecca didn't die and I'm sure neither did the child. Remember, I've read the journal…she had to be alive to have written it." She turned slowly towards Vincent as she said it, her features returning to human ones. Even as she did, she felt the tension go out of him and he turned back as well.

"I'm sorry," he said, his eyes shining with held back tears. "I'm so sorry…"

Rather than talking, Catherine went back to him and pulled him against her.

Back in the lab, the agents, J.T. and Tess stood very still, more unnerved by the sudden silence than they had been by the loud argument even. J.T. was almost tempted to go back in spite of the fact that he'd been the one who convinced everyone else to leave. To keep himself from doing just that, he instead turned to his laptop, which he hadn't looked at ever since this all started. Given what they already knew of Catherine and Vincent's ancestors, J.T. had figured maybe he could find out more if he researched the two families more thoroughly and apparently the search had proven fruitful because a few promising results were showing up in the browser. The one that immediately caught his attention was the third on the list.

It was a by-line from 1856 about a set of twin that ended up being raised by their mother's sister, Rachel Reynolds recently widowed of the late Jeremiah Ddraig, himself having been murdered under gruesome circumstances. The twins were abandoned by their mother, Rebecca Reynolds, in the care of the Reynolds' family and soon afterward, Rachel Reynolds moved to the British Isles with the children and her new fiancé Marcus Ddraig, a cousin of her deceased husband. The police investigated the widow and her new fiancé but found that they both had solid alibis for the time of the murder.

Some of the investigators intimated that there could be a connection between the murder and the children's abandonment although most people simply attributed Rebecca's gesture to the fact that she had those children out of wedlock and that the father might even have been a notorious criminal, executed for his crimes some time ago. The case of Jeremiah Ddraig's murder was never solved however, because after abandoning the children their only other prime suspect, Rebecca Reynolds, disappeared and was never seen again.

J.T. guessed the only reason this had made the paper was because of the connection with one or more crimes. Nevertheless, he was happy to have found yet another tread in this tangled mess.

Setting this aside for a moment, he followed another link, related to the Ddraig family and to his search through the mother Rachel Reynolds. A link to a picture brought up yet another arresting shock to J.T.. In the picture, two young men were standing on a train platform, obviously posing for the camera. The shorter man was a mousy, yet obviously well to do man. His eyes staring through the lense spoke of a calm intelligence. The other young man was much taller with an imposing physique. His dark longish hair half covered deep recessed eyes, and instead of looking directly at the camera, the young man showed in a slight profile. No matter, the resemblance to Vincent was striking although not as perfect as in the sketch J.T. had seen in the journal. Minute details showed the young man to be a relative rather than the copy the picture had shown. Looking at the date, 1888, J.T. surmised he might be looking at one of Alistair and Rebecca's children. What really amazed him though, was the name of the shorter man in the picture. That was Arthur Conan Doyle, the famous author. The boy by his side went by the name of John Reynolds but J.T. surmised he may just have chosen to keep his mother's name. The picture had been taken in Sussex, England, according to the short article that accompanied it.

"How interesting," Agent Carson said, as he came closer and got a good look at the laptop screen. "You just found one of our most illustrious founders."

"Your agency was founded by Conan Doyle?" J.T. questioned, obviously a little impressed.

"No, not him... I'm talking about John Reynolds, arguably the real inspiration behind the Sherlock Holmes character."

"What? Next you'll tell us you're an off shoot of Scotland Yard!"

Agent Carson regarded J.T. very seriously, "many of our past members were in fact selected from the elite of that great police force. They, among others, chose to join in the very honourable pursuits of our organization."

"Maybe you could enlighten us on that point at least," Tess interjected with a hint of scepticism.

"Why, that would be saving the world with and from the beasts, among other things…"

The seriousness with which Agent Carson said this left J.T. and Tess speechless.

"I didn't want to hurt you again," Vincent worriedly said after a long moment of uneasy silence between the two of them.

"And you didn't…" Catherine reassured him. "But I know now I shouldn't have gone to my father first with all this dream business. I was just so afraid of what you'd think of me, particularly now that…"

"Now that you're a beast," Vincent finished for her. "Catherine, if anyone can understand conflicting feelings, that'd be me…"

"So…" Catherine started a little hesitantly, "was I right? Was that what Alistair was so angry about? A child?"

"I think so," Vincent replied uncertainly. "I mean, it had to be. Why would he have been otherwise? But if he thought Rebecca would get killed for helping him…"

"There's one thing I don't understand…I get that seeing her die and possibly their child to be must have added to his horrifying ordeal. Don't get me wrong. But…the child if there was one, must have been barely conceived. How could it have mattered more to Alistair than surviving? Or for her apparent sacrifice to make him hate her in his last moments… That just seems so extreme."

"You know, this may all still be in our minds…Being a beast is not any more natural to me than it is to you. I mean I remember a time things like that would have qualified as crazy fantasies for me. Maybe, I don't know, maybe we just make connections more profoundly than other people because it relates to beasts and that's why it feels more real even in dreams…"

"I'd agree if it wasn't for all the stuff in the journal…you think I extrapolated and you did too because of what I told you?"

"Don't you think that would make more sense than this whole thing?"

"It would, but then again," Catherine rested her head against his chest warily as she spoke, "then why am I a beast in the first place? What is this all about?"

Vincent just tightened his arms around her but couldn't find any answer to those questions. In fact, they might as well have been his own in the past, when he asked of the universe, "why me?"

"I really don't know, babe," he still said after a while, "Do you think you're calm enough to go back to the lab? Who knows, J.T. did say they found some stuff out. Maybe they got an answer to some of that. Wouldn't that be nice?"

"I'm not holding my breath, honestly," Catherine said even as she started getting up. "But it beats staying in a cell I guess," she finished, holding him up from the cot with a small smile.

"Let's go see what they know," Vincent smiled back, kissing her lips softly before they headed back.

They re-entered the lab hand in hand, but they might as well not have been there for all the attention they got from the other four people in the room.

"Now," J.T. was saying, "you really don't go half way…save the world?" He questioned pointedly.

"We should've known better than to ask those two pompous clowns," Tess added contemptuously.

"Think what you will," agent Carson replied testily, "it's the truth. It's been our mandate for over a hundred years. And before that, others had filled our shoes but their actions were not as, let's just say, measured…John helped create a more honourable agency. He fought with all he had to get away from the Ddraig family's policies on the beasts. Nowadays, we dictate to that family as well as they fell in line with us for the greater good. Well, most of them anyway…

"Jeremy?"

"Hum, fear had kept him out of trouble until recently but it seems circumstances have changed again. We suspected it might from earlier experiences and that's why it's really important that your friends come around."

"We would be glad to do so if you'd just explain yourselves," Vincent interrupted them.

All four heads turned toward the new arrivals.

"Is everything alright?" J.T. questioned them cautiously.

"As well as can be under the circumstances," Catherine answered for the both of them. "What interests us more is what you're all talking about now…"

Agent Carson turned to them at this, "I guess it's time although we'd have preferred you would agree to our terms first. Not as you seem to think because of some malignant plot but because what we're about to tell you could potentially expose innocent people to harm. At least, promise that you won't tell anyone else what we tell you now."

"Agent Carson, right?" Vincent questioned as he took a seat near the table, "Why would you think any of us would go around and risk exposing ourselves?"

"To be fair," the agent replied, taking a seat himself, "you haven't been as discreet as you should have been in the past two years…"

"You know it couldn't be helped. We still didn't go and shout about it over the rooftops now did we?

"Alright…It would've been so much better if we had gotten those journals before Jeremy got to them…"

J.T. again had a moment of impatience with the agent, "Would you have preferred we got cut into pieces protecting paper?"

"I'm sure the agent didn't mean it like that," Vincent said conciliatorily.

"Of course not. I was only pointing out that some of them contain vital information and could shed light on this discussion in a much more eloquent fashion. Also it is very unfortunate that Jeremy got his hands on them. Particularly Vanessa's journal in this instance…"

"My mother's?" Catherine questioned in astonishment.

"Would that be the one you're looking for," a little voice came from the doorway, where Heather was standing uncertainly, holding a leather bound journal tightly in one hand and a briefcase in the other.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter VIII

"Heather," Catherine exclaimed, taking a step toward her sister but right away, uncertainty crept its way through her and she stopped. She had not seen her sister since the change and she feared what Heather might think. Her sister did look as if she was still debating running away.

"Hello, Cat," Heather replied softly. "You're ok…" she continued uncertainly.

"Yes…yes I'm ok, Heather. How are you?"

Heather pursed her lips apprehensively. "I'm fine," she still managed to answer, although she couldn't help showing a little fear. That was eloquently demonstrated when Catherine attempted to take another step and Heather moved back one of her own. "I'm sorry," she immediately said when she saw the look of disappointment on Catherine's face but she didn't move forward again right away. "How did this happen?"

"So…you know everything?"

"We told her, Cat. It was better she learned it from us than…you know…" Tess told her apologetically.

"Yes," Catherine agreed sadly. "I guess it was better."

To her credit, Heather finally started toward her. Slowly at first but then she gave her the journal and after another moment of hesitation, she dropped the briefcase and threw her arms around her sister. "It's gonna be ok Cat. Vincent is fine right? Why wouldn't you be? You're my strong sister after all."

Relief flooded Catherine as she smiled gratefully. "Yes, it's gonna be alright. But how did you know we'd be here," she then questioned Heather. 

"I didn't," Heather answered, "I just tried to find JT and Tess and when I didn't find them anywhere else, I figured I'd give this place a try and…here I am. See I felt bad for taking it in the first place. I figured it must be important for you guys to have gotten the other ones and also when I began reading this one…That's when I knew it belonged to you. Mom would have wanted you to have it. Did you read Rebecca's journals yet, Cat? They're incredible."

"You've read them?" JT questioned.

"Read them? Yeah I did. This past week would've been unbearable without those journals. I'd even begun taking notes to write a story but…"

"Heather, you can't be serious," Catherine exclaimed incredulously.

"Don't worry," Heather rallied, "I understand how important it is that it all stays a secret. I was just, you know, working through my problems…"

"You say you took notes," Tess asked. "How extensive?"

"Very. I had a lot of time on my hands… Not that it should matter. The originals are much more complete and you took those already."

"We did…but someone stole them from us…"

Agent Carson and his always quiet partner agent Levy seemed more than a little put off at this new intrusion. "You know, maybe we should just invite the neighbourhood for a potluck or something."

"Heather is family and she already knows most of it anyway," Vincent defended her. "Besides, we trust her a whole lot more than we trust you."

"I guess it's fair enough," agent Carson relented. "At least, she saved the journal from Jeremy."

"Those would be my mother's private thoughts and I don't think I want to discuss those with you," Catherine spoke up.

"Then we invite you to read some of it at least before you decide what you're gonna do. We believe it might contain valuable information that would save us a lot of time and complicated explanations…Meanwhile I think there was the matter of bones that Mr. Forbes was looking for?"

"What would you know about that?" JT exclaimed.

"I know you all don't like to hear this, but we did say we were watching you… In fact, we started watching this dungeon ever since you found it and subsequently dealt with this Sam character. So earlier, we heard you were searching for bones and we figured you meant the remains we found in this very lab and that we took away, for safe keeping."

"Safe from what?" Vincent questioned warily.

"From anyone else using them to create beasts of course. I'm guessing you already suspect whose bones these are…"

"Alistair," Vincent sighed.

"I'm gonna need them." JT interjected.

"Yes of course," Agent Carson immediately agreed, "and if I were you, I'd do a more thorough DNA profile of the beast skeleton you recovered a while back. Compare those bones with the newer ones…"

"What connection could there possibly be other than the beast DNA being present in both?"

"I prefer you drew your own conclusions Mr. Forbes. We'll defer to your expertise on that one," Agent Carson declared even as he pulled out a small satchel from his coat pocket. "There wasn't much left, I'm afraid. Sam used up most of the sample for his research but fortunately he kept some."

JT took the satchel almost reverentially. The simple thought of what he'd read only mere hours ago relating to these bones gave him a slight chill. "If they were burned on a pyre, I wonder what usable DNA could have been found in them anyway…" he spoke up after a long moment of thoughtful silence.

"You'd be surprised. Regeneration is a big part of Beasts' physiology and the bones, while not intact, still had a lot of usable marrow." Agent Carson suddenly became aware of many pairs of reproachful eyes turned toward him. "I know how it sounds," he apologetically continued, "and I'm guessing that for some of you, this could be a seriously painful subject…" the man actually met Vincent's stare for a brief moment before he pursued, "but what can be found out from these bones outweighs the reluctance one might have. I can assure you we've treated them with the utmost respect, as they are part of our long history as well as yours."

Now that agent Carson had all but confirmed what he had guessed, Vincent stared uneasily at the small pouch that contained what remained of a man he felt dying only hours before. This was the strangest thing as the presence of those remains made what he remembered all too real.

JT saw the apprehension in Vincent's expression and it gave him pause. "Vince, if you don't want us to test the bones, we just won't…"

For a beat, it looked like Vincent might take him up on his offer and JT almost regretted saying it, but at the same time, he thought he understood how deeply personal this all appeared to be for his friend even if he didn't really Know why.

"Nah…you go ahead," Vincent forced out. "I think I need to know."

"Alright," was JT's simple answer. Then he turned to the agent with a question of his own, "Just curious…How did Sam know who's bones were these and their potential?"

"Sam is an archeologist and historian by trade. We suspect that even before what happened to his son, he'd been on the verge of uncovering some parts of history that should have stayed hidden. When he came to our attention more than five years ago however, it was because he had threatened very powerful people with a promise of revenge. But in truth, we do believe it was our fault. At the time, we gave Jeremy the assignment of watching him but Sam supposedly disappeared, presumed dead and we thought that was the end of it."

"Jeremy? You trusted that guy?" J.t asked, astounded after all he heard regarding that man.

"I know you might think it irresponsible but at the time we knew little of Jeremy's liability in the Muirfield debacle. We only knew he'd been roped in with them because of the chimera experiments. Those, I'm ashamed to say had been sanctioned by our agency. To my defense," agent Carson quickly added when he noticed the reproachful stares he was getting. "At the time, just like he had your mother, Catherine, Jeremy had managed to convinced my predecessors that we'd reached a point where we could recreate the benefits of having beasts around without the obvious drawbacks."

"So," Catherine commented after the uneasy silence the last remark elicited. "By drawbacks you meant beasts right?"

"I believe you picked up on the wrong part of what I said."

"Don't get me wrong," Vincent said, "being a beast isn't all it's cracked up to be...but you came to us for help...and now you're saying that one of your goals is to eliminate the need for us...yeah we still don't know why beasts are needed. Can't wait for that one by the way! But here's my problem: last year I got kidnapped and brainwashed into killing beasts and ultimately I was supposed to die too...So far you haven't given me too many good reasons to trust you're not in it to kill us both once we've served our purpose...whatever that is."

"Let's be frank then." Agent Carson relented

"Yeah let's," JT interjected testily.

Agent Carson breathed in deeply before pursuing, "I'm sure we're all in agreement that beasts are dangerous, aren't we?"

When his question went unanswered he continued, "I'm also certain Vincent here remembers the little bit of technology we demonstrated a few weeks ago? The one that incapacitated you in a totally nonviolent fashion I might add. Well we could've killed you easily then but we didn't. Instead we granted you your freedom."

"You wanted me to kill someone!" Vincent reacted forcefully.

"And ultimately you must admit if you had, innocent people would be alive right now...but," agent Carson pursued before he could protest, "we understand why you didn't. And we really hope we never have to ask you to kill anyone again. That's one thing...however we can't deny, and neither can you, that you are in fact both dangerous. What happened earlier to the beast we sent to find you illustrates that point."

"It was self-defense," Vincent once again defended Catherine when she wouldn't. "And if she wasn't a beast it's Catherine that would be lying back there."

"You're most likely right and the reason we haven't done anything to you about this is that we suspect Jeremy may have had a hand in Rachel's behavior."

"He mentioned something about you making a mistake in sending a female close to her mating cycle, or some crap like that!"

"That part isn't true. It was just misdirection on his part and I think I know why. He may not even have cared so much about the journals but was rather trying to drive a wedge between us and you guys. I'm afraid we've underestimated the weasel again."

"If that's not true then why did this Rachel attack Catherine?" Vincent questioned.

"Again, I believe that whatever is in the journal we have here and what miss Chandler," agent Carson indicated Heather, "remembers from Rebecca's will shed some light on that for you. Suffice to say that to provoke her he only needed telling her who you truly are..."

"You're making no sense at all," Catherine protested impatiently.

"Please, read it and then we'll talk. You should also take a look at the research your friend JT talked to you about earlier. Should be enlightening... Meanwhile," agent Carson quickly added to stay any more interruptions, "agent Levy and I will go see about a better security system for your little place. And I hope JT will have made some progress on those bones by the time we come back."

Without waiting for an answer the two agents headed out, leaving all of them with more questions than answers as was becoming their unpleasant habit.

"Well I hate to do anything that would please this ass, and by the way I don't care if they're listening, but I am real curious about those bones." JT headed towards the complex machines set against the longest wall of the lab, soon warming them up a little too enthusiastically.

"I think I'm gonna try to do something about the listening thing myself," Vincent replied, leaving JT to his passion. And then maybe Tess could fill us in on the research you've been doing."

"I'll help you with the surveillance stuff," Tess added, "I'm not too keen on people snooping on me like that either."

Heather looked to Catherine for her next move. "I'd say it's about time I caught up with some reading, don't you think?" This one finally declared.

A small smile brightened Heather's face. "And we can finally have some sisterly time. To think you had to become a beast for that to happen." Her smile widened at that and in spite of the irreverence of the comment, or more probably because of it, Catherine suddenly felt lighter than she had all day.

"Don't think it's gonna be all play," she told Heather, taking her arm and leading her toward the quieter cells. More seriously she turned to Vincent, "if I find anything I'll come get you."

He only acknowledged with a smile and a nod before starting on their search for bugs with Tess.

Heather and Catherine found themselves sitting in one of the open cells. Strange as it may have seemed, it felt peaceful and somewhat away from all the weirdness to Catherine. "So, how are you really?" She asked Heather after they settled on the cot, which was the only piece of furniture in the cell.

"Matthew called me," Heather replied without looking at her sister.

"He did?" Catherine wasn't exactly surprised but at the same time, from what Vincent had told her, the man was cagey at best. "What did he want?"

"He wanted to apologize…he said he'd been sincere with me."

"You don't sound too sure about that."

"Would you be? I mean, he didn't just run away from me right after our vows. He lied to me just about everything. I don't even know him. I can't be sure Reid is his real name now."

"Don't get me wrong," Catherine started after they both gave themselves a moment to think on it. "I don't know him, but I believe if you wanted to marry him, you must have known something about him. I mean, he can't have been insincere all the time. And bear in mind, I'm not saying this so that you'll forgive him outright…"

"Good, cause they're ain't much of a chance of that happening any time soon…" Heather retorted a little too fast. "And I told him as much." She added somewhat more calmly. "I really loved him you know that," Heather's voice broke at that and Catherine pulled her into a hug, not quite knowing what she could say that would help. "But," Heather rallied, taking a deep breath and pulling away from Catherine, "today is not about me. It's about you and what's happened to you."

"We got time for that," Catherine began.

"No, I'm here for you, and that's that," Heather finished categorically.

Catherine stared searchingly into her sister's eyes. "What about me?"

"What about you?"

"I mean can you…can you forgive me for dragging you into this mess?"

Heather sighed deeply at this. "I think once you've started on the journal, you'll see who really needs forgiveness, and that's not you."

"You're angry with Mom," Catherine stated.

"Yes I am. What's happening to you isn't her fault but not telling you was wrong and what she did to others…let's just say, hell is definitely paved with good intentions…"

"How did you find that so fast," Tess was staring at a very small listening device Vincent pulled out of a tiny crack in the wall of the lab.

"It was just obvious."

"Hey you can't say that. It sure as hell wasn't obvious to anyone else."

"Ok, most electronic devices emit a low frequency that is beyond the normal human capacity to hear or feel. Although some people have been known to react to those even if they can't pinpoint what it is they're sensing…"

"Alright, so you mean that you can 'sense' electronic devices? Wouldn't that be annoying nowadays with all the electronic stuff around us? And really, why didn't you sense them before?"

"Maybe you should think of it more as you and the city sounds. You hear them all the time and they're just part of the background until you want to hear a particular sound, right?"

"Ooook…so you mean, it's like you have this humming around you all the time and you manage to ignore it?"

"That and a lot of other things, Tess; if you could hear and smell the stuff I can, at first it would be really overwhelming. A little like what happened to Catherine last week. She's surprisingly good at dealing with it considering it happened all at once while I had time to adapt to it. But then again," Vincent turned to watch JT prepare the samples pensively, "it would seem I wasn't supposed to."

"We don't really know what's going on big guy. How about you go sniff or whatever for more of those things? I got the feeling this is just the tip of the iceberg!"

Vincent stared back at Tess, wondering if he should be insulted to have been compared to a glorified blood hound, but he saw the amused smile on her lips and shrugged it off. "Ok, let's do it."


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter IX

_October 12 1982,_

_Only a few hours ago I gave birth to my beautiful little girl. For the longest time, I hesitated giving birth as I suspected I was most certainly destined to give birth to one of you. Following the family tree and the fact that our direct lineage is growing smaller every generation I'm afraid that might be inevitable but I love you so much already, it won't matter to me. Not that it has to be a horrible faith; not at all. I'll raise you strong and independent, my sweet. I'll give you all the strength I can so you can make your own way when the time comes. I'll try to give you a strong moral sense and I'm sure that if your destiny is to be one of them, you'll turn out to be one of the good ones. When you come of age, god willing I'll be there to help you through it. But if not, I hope this journal will be of some aid to you. I have to trust in that. Sleep tight my little one. And don't worry; I'm watching over you and I love you no matter what._

Catherine felt tears running down her cheeks as she finished reading the passage Heather indicated for her. It was incredible to read thoughts her mother wrote the very day of her birth but also disturbing to realize that Vanessa had known about beasts all along.

"When I read that, I knew I had to find you, Catherine." Heather softly said.

In response, Catherine hugged her sister tight against her.

"Hey," Heather exclaimed as she pulled away, "watch out or you'll crush me!"

Catherine was about to apologize but she saw the somewhat amused look in her sister's eyes. "You're taking this a lot better than I thought you would."

"Reading all the stuff about you two did help a lot, trust me. Well ok maybe not you two but you'll get what I mean soon. I'm not saying it's all dandy but I come at it from a new perspective now… Besides you're my big sister. That hasn't changed. And your boyfriend saved my life twice already. But the most important part is you're the best person I know. That won't change."

"You don't know how much this means to me, Heather." Catherine managed in a strangled voice. She saw tears welling in her sister's eyes as well, but she smiled through it and pressed Catherine's hands between hers, conveying the depth of emotions she felt without a word.

Then she rallied, "Come on, read on. It's not all nice but I think you need to know."

_December 9, 1982,_

_Robert and I we called it quit. I never want you to wonder about that when you read this. He does love you. After all he was there when you were born and I saw the look on his face when he saw you. But when we found out for sure what you were, we had two choices and neither was very pleasant. One day, you'll understand on your own why things had to be the way they are. As for Robert, he's giving me a gift and most of all he's giving you the gift of freedom of choice. I'll try everything in my power for you to get the chance to make those choices without anyone telling you what you should or shouldn't do ever._

_March 18, 1983,_

_I've met the only father I believe you'll ever know. I know that you might resent me some day for hiding so much from you but then again, maybe you'll see that I did it all for your own good. I've asked him to adopt you officially and he gladly accepted. For his sake and mine I'll raise you like any other child. I just hope you can forgive this weakness but I so long for a normal life and I truly think that keeping you away from all the trappings of the clans' business will be good for you. Not all of you are close to the families and they sometimes turn out the better for it. I'm hoping the same for you._

_February 18, 1988_

_When Jeremy came to me about this chimera business, in my heart I knew that it might be the wrong way to go. Particularly that I had kept away from all this ever since you were born. But then, he appealed to my loyalty to the clans and the cause. I have my doubts on his motives but he is the only one who remembers enough of the past to be able to do something for you and all the others. If he succeeds in what he proposed to me, not only would it give an alternative to your destiny, but it might protect humanity against a possible failure in your cycles._

_We don't know what would happen if beasts stopped to exist, maybe the experiment would persist on its own even after the beasts have all gone. But we have to plan for the worst. Already many of the pairs have ceased to exist. At least that's what Jeremy tells me. And considering the dwindling number in our family tree, I have little reason to doubt him even though I have no idea if there are contingencies. I have to act with the best knowledge I have now and hope that I won't get judged too harshly for what I am about to do. I want you to know that I really think it's a necessary evil and that humanity's continued existence might be at stake. _

_I've got to confess however that the real reason why I wanted to do this is more personal. After your sister was born and I verified that she would be a regular human, I wished the same for you so much. Maybe what Jeremy has in mind could be the solution._

_April 19, 1989_

_I should have known better than to trust Jeremy. If humanity's sake was dependent on his help, then we're all in big trouble. But I have to hope that at least that is not in question. I'm ashamed of what I did now. I don't know how I can have let him rope me into his scheme. He made me believe his intent was to give man the benefits of beasts without the terrible downsides. Instead, I finally understood his plan was to create more beasts. No matter, now I have to undo the damage we've done at all cost. I was so sure it was possible to change things that I blinded myself to the truth. Jeremy's psyche has been severely touched by the unusual cycle he and his beast have lived through. I thought it would make him the best person to do what he proposed but instead, I found myself party to his madness. By some miracle, I seemed to have managed to convince Jeremy that the serum we used was too corrupted and that the experiments were a failure. He can never know that a few were on the verge of being a success. The unnatural quality of those new beasts makes them too dangerous to be let loose on the world. But before I could stop it I had to find a way to undo what I had done. Last night, I finally succeeded partly by creating a counter serum based on my own predisposed DNA. Somehow, I can use my own blood to stop the transformation but it's only a band aid and I can't trust that many people with this lest Jeremy found out. Not now anyway. Hopefully I'll find some more permanent cure in the future but for now, I'll have to care for those children touched by his madness myself and for as long as needed. I reached out to the only other person who could help me, Robert. When you were born, I have to confess to you that one of the reasons for our fall out was your nature. I don't know exactly what happened but he himself used to be one of you, destined to go through time without memory of your former lives. Something happened to him and he got separated from the beast inside, but he still goes on, predisposed like me. If he has any idea of the why, he's not telling. Jeremy once told me that some beasts were deemed unfit by the creator he still calls the "master". Robert is not fond of beasts and that's likely the reason he left in the first place, but as I told you, his continued silence about you and I is a great gift. He's also agreed to help me here but only after I promised none of those kids would be allowed to become beasts. I'm thankful for his FBI credentials and connections._

_April 26, 1989_

_My solution to free the children was to make Jeremy believe that those we gave the serum already died from the treatment and a pharmacological trick did it. He apparently dropped his grand scheme, at least for now. Seems I lucked out because he already was preparing himself for a possible failure and he didn't see through my deception. He told me he now believed the sample he had been using was corrupted and he had no way of finding another. I hope he never finds another. _

_June, 18, 1989_

_We finally got the other children out, those who had not been experimented on yet. To the authorities, it'll only be yet another orphanage having had to close its doors for lack of funding. I hope the children still have good lives but at least now they're free to live them._

_Feb 1, 2002_

_The terrorist attack has changed things for so many of us. Not everyone had family or friends who died in the towers or on those planes, but the entire nation shared the grief of the losses nevertheless. The anger we all feel as a nation is the worst part of it however. Same as the government who plunged us into this terrible new war with the blessing of an outraged nation, blind rage has caused me to agree to something so drastic, so unimaginable…I can barely make myself write it now. Catherine if you ever read this, know that my fears for you and your sister led me to once again believe a lie. I only thought that I was helping saving lives. It's a poor excuse considering what I have done before, but I justified it by telling myself that those people volunteered for it. They were not unwilling participants like the children. Jeremy convinced me that he modified the serum and that it should only have given them improved strength and speed but that's not what happened. _

_The worst part of it is Robert's betrayal. He was the one, unbelievably enough, who came to Jeremy and asked for his help. The terrorist attack had an effect on him too. As much as he despises beasts, he got it in his mind that if they could be controlled, they could win the war for us. The fact that we've both been played was no excuse. I finally figured out why Jeremy was so intent on making more beasts. It would seem that as the beast that he is, the other beasts usually fell in line behind him but recently he has lost many of them to some society devoted to the protection of humanity and beasts alike. Making new beasts was supposed to recreate his hegemony in his sick mind. _

_The experiment was an even more horrible failure this time. Contrary to what Jeremy had assured me of, we created full hybrid beasts once more, but since they were adults instead of open minded children, they soon began to lose control, unable to cope with the change. At first it didn't seem it would go this bad. The volunteers did have improved senses and in spite of the side effects, I thought Jeremy had been truthful, but as soon as the transformation was complete, everything went to hell. The army officers who had been more than willing to try this approach now saw the result and balked at it. Right away they wanted deniability when the beasts not only tore into the support staff on the base but also into nearby villagers. The massacre was indescribable. I wanted to try my own improved serum on them but the people in charge on the base had other ideas. They ordered a strike to pacify the whole experiment and erase it from existence, me included. Strangely however, it wasn't Jeremy or Robert who saved me from this fate. They had run away to their corporate sponsors, who were the true money behind the project as I learned later on, an outfit called Muirfield. _

_No it was one of the beasts who saved me. He alone seemed to regain control of his senses and after he got me out of the compound, I took some of his blood to research why he seemed to have been the success Jeremy was looking for. He wasn't…Back in the states, I made the mistake of letting him see you once, but I don't think you'd remember that. He just came into my lab as you went out of the house. That was enough though. He didn't even know why I'm sure of it, but I saw that he was into you right away. That and the little revelation I've had about who this Vincent Keller truly is convinced me all the more that I should do everything in my power to stop you from becoming. I tried to convince him to stay away from you lest he'd hurt you. I don't think he knows what you are, not yet. For some reason, no one has told him what he is either. Maybe no one thought of it in his family. The Kellers are not known for their scientific orientations. He wasn't supposed to change for another three years at least anyway… maybe, just like me with you, they wanted him to start in life without being defined by what he is. He's a good man and I think he will do as I asked. He was going to be a doctor and that's a real shame. But you see… his destiny…if Jeremy finds out he didn't die in Afghanistan he will be in mortal danger and so will anyone around him. That's why I shamefully also convinced him he should stay away not only from you but also from his family . If he talks to them about what he is...they might tell him about our family...Better they think him dead than this. I hope he never learns my true motivation because he would be justified to hate me. _

_Meanwhile, I'm now convinced I can stop a beast from changing. Yes, I have been experimenting all those years and the work I've done for the kids has been invaluable in this. What I had believed was the reason for the first experiment I've now accomplished on my own. I can't justify giving this cure to any other beast. Not without knowing the consequences to humanity, but I can make sure that you won't be one. At least, I hope it works…I won't be sure until you're 25th birthday but in the meantime I'll start your treatment. _

"Treatment?" Catherine spoke aloud, more than a little shaken up by what she read. But then she remembered what Vincent took the year before and wondered. Gabriel had said he synthesized some treatment her mother had given to him until her untimely death. What he never told them other than the fact that the new version was becoming inefficient was how efficient had been her mother's treatment. She was wondering about this now, considering her 25th birthday was long passed. She searched her memory to try and remember when would her mother have treated her and it all came back. At the time, just after the terrorist attack, people had become paranoid about many things but one in particular scared everyone the most because it could happen without warning. Everybody seemed to fear weaponized viruses like anthrax. Her mother's lab had apparently been working on some wide spectrum antiviral and she convinced Catherine that she should use it as a prophylactic. When she'd asked why her and not Heather, her mother told her Heather was highly allergic to a main component of the medicine. At the time Catherine had no reason to doubt her mother. The first treatment had been an injection that had made her sick for a day or two but her mother reassured her that it was perfectly normal and that the pills she then should take every month from now on wouldn't have the same effect. Catherine had dutifully followed her mother's instructions until the pills ran out about 3 years later. By then the worst of the scare had passed and she simply stopped. Now why it had taken so long for the effect to wear off she had no clue, but she guessed the answer to that and other questions might be found in her mother's notebook. Then she suddenly remembered that she never got it out of her father's house. "Heather have you gotten rid of mom's stuff last year?"

At first she got no answer and she found that her sister was reading some other journal. "Heather?" She repeated louder.

"What?" Heather seemed to only just realize her sister was still there. "Wow this John guy was intense!"

"What are you talking about? Oh never mind, what did you do with mom's stuff?"

"I'm guessing you want that science notebook right?"

"Yes! Yes that one. Do you still have it?"

"I got it right here. Thought maybe you'd want to look at it."

"I think JT might find it interesting," Catherine countered. "But wait," she added when Heather was already getting up to go see JT. "Who is this John you're reading about?"

Heather smiled in a conspiratorial fashion, "I kid you not, if any of what I'm reading there is true, he was Rebecca and Alistair's son!"

"Alright, I guess I'll read all about it later. For now please give the notebook to JT. I've got a few pages left here."

Before Heather had even left the room Catherine was reading again.

_September 10, 2002,_

_After testing your blood, I couldn't really tell whether the treatment had any effect. It's not all that surprising given that your beast DNA didn't get expressed yet but I had been hoping to see a change in the structure of the gene same as I saw in the kids DNA. Yours is more potent and well anchored in your genetic make up however. Hopefully the repeating of the treatment will work for you. _

_Vincent was back last night. He stayed out of your sight but he came to me saying he was worried for us. To be fair, I believe he has good reasons. The armed forces as a whole have no clue what really happened in the fortunately isolated camp where the experiment took place. I don't wanna think what could have happened if we'd been near a big center. They only know that an attack occurred and a powerful explosion killed soldiers and civilians alike. The few officers in the know have been keeping quiet and I'm relieved that they never came knocking to demand an explanation. But the other outfit, meaning Muirfield, is another matter altogether. I'm actually surprised they haven't shown up yet. Maybe Robert or even Jeremy told them I'm not a threat to them but considering what happened I won't feel safe any time soon. In a way, I should tell Vincent to stay away but at the same time, whatever his motives are, knowing that he keeps an eye on you and I is a little reassuring. I've never gotten around to tell you about him. You may never meet him of course but after reading all this if I know you...and I do , you won't be able to resist looking for him. I hope I can dissuade you. _

_Understand that none of it is his fault or yours for that matter. It's a very long story and it started long before you or even I were born. Suffice for you to know that if you're the one who was supposed to be with him you shouldn't. He would agree if he knew what I know, but I can't tell him anything because it would most likely cause the very thing I want to avoid. If at some point in the future you two get together in spite of my warning, know that he is different and that's part of the reason why he is in danger from Jeremy. In my notebook, I documented his particular genetic make up but you shouldn't show it to anyone unless it becomes absolutely necessary. I'm not even sure I shouldn't destroy the notebook but at the same time, it might be your salvation and, who knows, maybe even his one day. _

_In it is the blue print to make beasts. That's the DNA Jeremy used for both experiments. Although the second time around, lord knows why, I now know he added his own DNA to the mix. I can't help thinking that could have been the true cause for the catastrophe that occurred and most of all, the reason even Vincent lost control for a while. I'm sure after reading all this it won't surprise you to know that Vincent was a beast, serum or not. But there is something even more remarkable about him. In Vincent's DNA there are no markers like in all the others, including you. Unbelievably enough he was born a cross between beast and man way back when. Not made._

Catherine. looked up from that last entry with a truly perplexed expression. How could any of it have happened so long ago and most of all, why would she say what she did about Vincent?

September 12, 2002,

_I think they're on to me. I've noticed cars parked on our street for hours sometimes. I'm too scared to try confronting those people. In a way I'm just tired of waiting for them to do something. In the meantime I'm secreting this journal and others I have in my possession to the only person I can think of. He'll have to decide in time if you should read them or not. I love you Catherine, same as I do Heather, no matter what you hear about your true parentage in the future, I need you to know that. _

After all that she read, that last sentence was the one Catherine found the most perplexing but now her mother could never explain herself and she figured maybe it was just a strange turn of phrase. Even as she thought that she looked around, surprised that Heather hadn't come back yet. Suddenly wary, she headed back to the lab.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter X

When Catherine got to the lab she saw that most of the others, including Heather, were assembled in front of JT's laptop. JT himself was still working with the samples and seemed oblivious to what was going on. Vincent and Heather had similar stunned looks on their faces that made Catherine uneasy.

"What's going on?"

"It's one thing to read about something," Heather answered without looking up, "it's a whole another thing to see it with your own eyes. That's…I can't describe…"

Catherine turned to Vincent who apparently couldn't take his eyes off the screen either. "Vincent?"

"Catherine you need to see this."

Catherine almost went back, worried as she was that seeing whatever it was they were all staring at might just throw her over the edge again. But then she knew it was the cowardly way and that, in the end, she'd have to face whatever it was anyway. So she reluctantly joined the others and made herself look at the screen. The moment she saw the first picture she grabbed Vincent's hand so tightly he actually winced but said nothing. "Oh my god…that's for real?"

"As real as they come. Or at least that's what it looks like. I mean who would even think of creating a hoax like that. And trust me, this is just the tip of the iceberg," Tess told her.

On the screen Catherine saw a woman that looked exactly like her but wore clothing that could only have been from another century. Her hairstyle so severe, she'd never have imagined herself with it. Like in many old pictures Catherine had seen before, the woman wasn't smiling but rather stared at the camera stoically and yet in spite of all those details, there was no doubt she was staring at her doppelganger and the caption said Rebecca Reynolds, 1850. She breathed in, trying to find a calm center. "This is just a weird coincidence, I'm sure…"

"I wish we still had the journals. Then you could see the sketch depicting Alistair. That would blow your mind…but here is another one…" Tess moved the cursor to another tab and a new picture showed up on the screen. This time, both Catherine and Vincent were taken aback. Not only was there a double of this Jeremy in the picture but beside him sat the exact same woman who attacked Catherine. For a long moment Catherine feared that she'd lose control again but Vincent pulled her gently toward her and she took strength from his own restraint. "I figured it could be upsetting for you," Tess offered as calmly as she could given she also feared her best friend might be a little rattled. "But really, we're all a bit upset."

Tess went ahead and changed the page to the picture on the train platform. That one was slightly less upsetting until Tess directed them to the date and names.

"John Reynolds ?!" Heather exclaimed.

Catherine remembered the name Heather mentioned earlier. "That's the same one who wrote the journals!"

"Wait what journals?" Tess questioned. "I thought you were reading your mother's journal."

"I was but Heather also kept two journals written by this man or if it's not him..."

"Right, way too coincidental." Tess confirmed. "Those agents will have a cow when they hear this...which they possibly already did if we didn't get all the bugs out."

"What's it to them," Heather wondered.

"It would seem this guy was like their founder or something."

"He looks so much like you," Catherine indicated to Vincent who really didn't need to be told but still took it without commenting. "Are you seeing this?" Catherine insisted.

"Yes but I don't quite believe it." The more he saw, the more he felt the surrealism of the situation.

From his work station JT called to Tess. "Show them the search results. The third down..."

Tess nodded her assent and opened the new page for all of them to see. After reading the short but very informative article about the children and the murder Catherine's state of mind was quickly moving from astonishment to complete consternation. "That's..."

"That's not possible..." Vincent finished the thought for her.

"But it all fits," Tess insisted, as she had not noticed her friends expressions. "And there's more..." Going back to the result page Tess moved to an item further down the list about a reverend William Keller, who apparently had made the news in the 1940s when he was tried and convicted for the murder of a young woman named Clara Reid. After scanning a few of the courtroom pictures which weren't clear enough to recognize anyone in them, she found what she was looking for, one of those court sketches. As soon as the picture resolved itself, Catherine felt as if the world was falling away from her. She held on to Vincent but even so, she could feel his own center slipping away. The court artist had apparently chosen to draw the victim and the accused side by side in the same sketch. When Tess managed to look away and directly at Catherine and Vincent a stupid thought came unbidden that they must just have been posing for the artist so clear the similarities were. Other than the fact that both of her friends had gone nearly white from the added shock…

"I need some air," Catherine managed through the haze that threatened to engulf her.

"I think we all do," Vincent approved even as he couldn't take his eyes away from the damming picture.

Tess finally seemed to grasp the enormity of what her friends had to take in. She clicked on a few links to send the most relevant articles to a remote printer JT had set up just that morning then she turned to them. "How about we make that a stiff drink?" Then she seemed to think better of it. "Not a problem right?"

"At this point I think it would be a problem not to," Vincent finally shook himself out of the near trance he'd been stuck in for the past few minutes.

"JT? How about that drink?"

"You go ahead and bring something back. I'm gonna be stuck here for a while."

"Suit yourself but keep that trank gun with you and call even if you see a cockroach look at you funny alright?" Tess admonished half-jokingly.

"Yes ma'am," was all she got out of him before he went back to his work.

For a brief moment after they all left for a nearby bar-restaurant JT got an uneasy feeling at the pit of his stomach as he suddenly remembered a time not so long ago when he was left by himself and nearly died. Then another thought came to him related to that event. It was something that seemed innocuous at first, something he thought might've been related to stress but now after almost a month he couldn't deny it to himself anymore. He hadn't slept in more than five days and still didn't feel the need to. The scientist in him knew something was very wrong but he also thought of it as an opportunity to work faster for his friends sakes. JT simply promised himself he would tell them if it didn't get back to normal...soonish.

About an hour later his first results were coming in and in that instant all thoughts of his problems were resolutely set aside while his mind reeled from the implications. "No way!" He sighed in utter shock. Rather than accepting the results as his, he began preparing new samples to redo the tests. After having set the machine anew he decided to take his mind off it for a while. He grabbed the printouts of the last search results Tess and the others had only skimmed before they left.

_Coatbridge Herald, June 14, 1949_

_At the time of this going to press the trial of one William Keller, age 37, is coming to an end. The accused, a formerly well respected clergyman in his community still claims his innocence in the gruesome murder of Clara Reid, born, Clara Reynolds, who died at the age of thirty-one. The evidence against the accused is damming as brought forth by the well-respected prosecutor, Daniel Ddraigs. On the morning of March 17, 1949, the victim was found eviscerated in the woods behind the accused residence. This came on the heels of an ill hidden affair between Keller and the victim whose husband, Jasper Reid, had been out of town for his work as an architect on many occasions prior to Clara's death. A few witnesses, some of which frequented the church reverend Keller officiated at, reported that during the last few days leading on to the murder they had heard the accused and the victim argue loudly on more than one occasions. None of them could recall the exact nature of the arguments but for the mention of the victim's twin daughters in at least one of those instances. _

_The case itself is one of the most gruesome and sad this reporter has ever had to cover. The victim had been slashed repeatedly across the throat and torso in what was originally presumed to be an animal attack. It was later established to many people's surprise and horror that although the coroner couldn't pinpoint the exact nature of the weapon, the crime scene revealed the presence of human prints and tracks rather than that of an animal. Following a distinct trail of blood, as if the victim had been dragged, the detectives in charge of the investigation were led to a nearby church and, subsequently, to the connection between the victim and the accused. Based on the testimonies of many neighbours and parishioners, a search warrant was executed promptly, only hours after the body's discovery and bloody clothes and shoes recovered from the living quarters of the accused were collected and later, the blood identified as that of the victim, Clara Reid. Based on the wealth of evidence recovered, William Keller was indicted within days. Ever since, the inquest has uncovered many more reasons to link the two people in this drama of epic proportion for our little town. Many witnesses and acquaintances of the victim and accused claim that the affair may have been going on for over two years and that the recently born twin daughters of the victim might in fact have been the accused's daughters. Keller himself has kept most of the details of his dalliance with the victim quiet. His only declaration was to proclaim his innocence and that he had been framed. Not many people have given credence to this however and the fate of the accused is already anticipated by most. _

_Jordan McGregor, court reporter for the Coatbridge Herald._

_June 22, 1949_

_On this day, the verdict has been rendered in the murder case of one Clara Reid. The accused, Reverend William Keller has been found guilty and the judge didn't lose time pronouncing the sentence of death by hanging to be carried out in three months time within the walls of the HMP Barlinnie, in Glasgow. Upon the reading of the verdict and sentence, the accused remained stoically silent and no one has managed to get a reaction from him or his lawyer. He was returned to his cell shortly after the verdict. All I can say is that our city will rest easier knowing that the murderer was caught and tried so swiftly. _

_Jordan McGregor, court reporter for the Coatbridge Herald._

JT looked up from the page with an uneasy feeling. To be truthful, he couldn't separate his own friends from the two people he'd also seen in the court sketch. And that in spite of the fact that after having found and subsequently read the court proceedings he was convinced that the case had indeed been as hair tight as could be. But then again, a detail of the case, or rather a name had also caught his attention. The name of the prosecutor, Daniel Ddraigs seemed like too much of a coincidence to him.

The bar was relatively empty but the part of town they were in wasn't where most revellers would end up. The quietness should have been conducive to conversation but the four people sitting almost alone in the bar were sipping drinks, all seemingly lost in deep thoughts.

Finally, it was Heather who broke the heavy silence that the background music only seemed to underline. "I don't think you should put too much into that…no seriously…that happened over sixty years ago! Those people they weren't you!"

"Heather is right you know…we're not even sure what this was about. For all we know, it's all some elaborate hoax! Maybe those damn agents did it."

Both Catherine and Vincent stared at the other two in turn without a word. "That wasn't even a real picture!" Heather insisted a little more forcefully. "And there are cases of people looking exactly like others. Doesn't mean they have anything to do with each other! Come on now…"

"And those other people you're talking about," Vincent finally answered with a definite bitter undertone, "did they also happen to be a couple identical to another couple?"

"Coincidences happen," Heather replied with just a hint of hesitation.

"Once," Catherine said, "once, I could have said, yeah it can happen…Twice…well in the cosmic scheme of things…maybe…Three times?"

"Ok, ok…" Tess conceded, "I know that this whole thing is probably way beyond us…but I do know you! What does it matter what might've happened years ago? And whoever they were, just like Heather said, they weren't you."

"Forgive me for disagreeing," Vincent said, "but if they weren't us…why do we remember some parts of their lives? But what do I know? I don't understand shit about any of this!" He finished with mounting irritation.

"This all sounds like science fiction to me and I never was much of a fan," Tess admitted moodily. "Although, of course," she added, remembering who she was talking to, "maybe reality is stranger!"

Once again, the silence fell among them like a pall and once again it was Heather that broke it. "How about more drinks?"

"If only I could get drunk," Vincent bitterly commented.

"What you don't?" Heather questioned.

"High metabolism and all. To be fair I don't know if there's a point where that would happen but I haven't gotten drunk since…well, you know."

"Alrighty then, drinks all around and you two can be designated drivers in future outings…" Tess joked. When she saw the reproachful stare Catherine turned to her she added, "What? There's always a silver lining!"

Back in the lab, JT sat back from the laptop and pondered what he'd found out. As he had suspected, the presence of this Daniel Ddraigs as prosecutor wasn't entirely coincidental. He did belong to the original family that had been a big part of the Alistair/Rebecca drama. In addition to that, JT found out that he had requested the assignment specifically, according to some documents he hacked into. Much more than this, the victim's husband was loosely related to the prosecutor, the husband's mother being a Ddraigs herself. But although he searched high and low, and both Clara and William had been born in the Reynolds and Keller families, there was no direct connection between them and Alistair or Rebecca. He had even followed the tracks of both this John Reynolds and his sister, Anna without finding even the remotest occasion where their paths or their children's paths might have crossed. Not to say that there couldn't have been. Anna Reynolds had lived all of her very long life in England, marrying twice, and having had 6 children of her own. John travelled extensively throughout the British colonies, with stays in Asia and Jamaica, marrying and divorcing twice and leaving behind 8 children of his own before returning home to finish his life in Suffolk. None of them having had any connection to this William or Clara either. The only overlap if one might call it that was that John died in 1950 at the ripe age of a hundred and one while his sister outlived him by 4 years. The most amazing thing about them was that late pictures of them showed very healthy elderly people who hardly seemed to wear their old age. Both of them died of sudden illnesses still in full possession of their faculties according to writings by members of their family.

JT also guessed that he could learn a lot more in time from the agency people but for now, he preferred to keep his investigation to himself. Going back to the prosecutor, he found out that the man had indeed been a respected lawyer in his time, working mostly out of Glasgow. Until the murder trial, his practice had been mostly civil law however and it had surprised quite a few people in his office that he would undertake a criminal trial. However, some correspondence that JT collected from the Prosecutor's office in Glasgow referred directly to the case and spoke of a personal grudge or family connection having been the principal motive for Daniel Ddraigs involvement in the case. As it turned out that JT had already made this connection, he wasn't really surprised. But what was more significant was the fact that Daniel Ddraigs had rented lodgings in the city of Coatbridge two years prior to the murder, even if his main address was in Glasgow, and he had been known to go there on a regular basis, telling people that he had family there.

At the beginning of the trials, William's lawyer had attempted to force the prosecutor to recuse himself based on his family connection and the fact that many witnesses saw him frequently in the company of the victim. The motion was eventually dismissed by the judge and the trial went on afterwards.

JT shook his head dejectedly. He knew that he couldn't possibly solve a cold case that happened more than sixty years ago, in Scotland to boot, but he couldn't shake the idea that William had indeed been framed. Then again, JT was back to his original conundrum of whether he was thinking along those lines because it was a possibility or because those people looked so much like his friends. Before he could dismiss the whole thing however, he had one last thing to check. None of the pictures he had seen so far were of the prosecutor himself. He thus went in search of just that, finally finding some obscure file about a civil case Daniel had prosecuted ten years before the murders. The picture nearly threw JT for a loop again. Once more, coincidences piled up as the picture was the perfect replica of the man in the painting and the Jeremy they now had met a few times. JT realized suddenly that even after all his time researching those people, he had not even once tried to figure out the man's last name. On a whim he tried Jeremy Ddraigs but got no results. Then he tried permutations of the other family names with the same lack of results.

Finally, he went back to the book jacket, written by this Tiffany Ddraigs. "Couldn't be this…" JT spoke up, almost spooking himself as the dungeon had been so quiet since the others had left. Still he decided to give a try to the most unlikely possibility. First he simply tried Jeremy Dragon…no result. Then he went ahead and put in the full name, Jeremy Pendragon. Right away he knew he had found his man. As a matter of fact, the full name almost took his breath away. Jeremy Arthur Pendragon. Suddenly the dungeon felt even more empty and foreboding. "Where are you guys," he asked of the silence before grabbing his cellphone and texting Tess just that.

After confirming by text with Tess that he was alright but would prefer they came back soon, JT turned back to his computer where a more thorough search quickly wielded a bio of this Jeremy character. The second shock came from his birth date. The man was in fact 56 years old. JT didn't dwell on it and chalked it up to a typo since the man had not even looked his 56 years in the picture. He'd been born here in New York and according to the file had his name changed from Arthur Ddraigs to Jeremy Pendragon, which pretty much explained why JT had not found him at first. JT let his mind wonder about the similarities with Jeremiah's name and if it had been done on purpose but he dismissed it out of hand as too much.

Then another thing occurred to him. If the prosecutor had been him or at any rate some double of him…He went back to the search on the prosecutor and found his obituary with a long sigh of surprise. The prosecutor had not been long for this world after the murder trial. JT found that the man died of a gunshot wound in February 1950, while visiting family in Coatbridge. No one was ever convicted of the crime as it was never solved. One of the detectives assigned to the case at the time had a theory but it was never proven. It referred to the very unusual circumstances surrounding the execution of William Keller and the possibility that a witness to the execution might have come undone and gone after the prosecutor.

During the investigation into Ddraig's murder, two people came forward with an outrageous story about the hanged man and the prosecutor who had been present at the time. Those two witnesses both insisted that the hanging itself had been a horrible affair where the Reverend had taken more than thirty minutes to die, during which time his face had taken a beastly shape that scared even the executioner. But what had really spooked the two witnesses was that they thought they saw the prosecutor's eyes glow for a brief moment as the reverend finally expired. The detective who had hypothesized that one of those witnesses might be responsible for the prosecutor's untimely death could never make a case for either of them being anywhere near the scene of the crime and he had to drop that lead eventually.

Once again and in spite of a loose family connection between the Scottish and American branches of the Ddraig families, there was no direct link of any kind between the two men. JT's mind was beginning to spin and he wondered if the lack of sleep might be responsible and if he was in fact seeing things. He desperately needed someone to confirm or infirm his findings just then.

Meanwhile, he caught sight of the journals supposedly written by the very John Reynolds he'd just read about. Heather had left them with him at the same time as Vanessa's notebook. Since he still had some time to kill he cracked the second one, where, according to Heather, he would find the most astonishing story. Thirty minutes later, JT looked up from the journal and he felt light headed and shaken to the core. Then the ping of the machine behind him brought him right back to the other spooky occurrence of the day. The difference was that now, he expected the results would be identical to the previous ones and they were.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter XI

When they returned to the dungeon, Catherine and the others saw that JT had become highly agitated. He couldn't seem to stay still, walking back and forth as if he was trying to escape some inner turmoil.

"JT what's the matter?" Vincent asked, obviously concerned.

"Nothing, nothing...everything!"

"Buddy you don't make sense..."

JT stopped mid stride and turned a haunted expression towards his friend. "Vince I'm not sure...the science is undeniable but…."

When it became obvious that JT had found something that unhinged him, Vincent went to him and calmly talked to him, "how about we all take a deep breath here, sit down and you can tell us all about it"

JT was still agitated but he seemed to get back some focus at least. As suggested by his friend, he took a seat at the main lab table and while everyone else found their own seat he used that time to collect his thoughts. "Alright," he began, "for starter, Vincent here knows how much of a packrat I am."

"Boy do I," Vincent replied with a little smile, "I had to move all this crap too."

"Yeah well," JT went on, "my tendency to keep everything doesn't stop with physical stuff. I also keep just about every scrap of digital data I ever collected. For once I congratulate myself for that." When his comment was greeted with expectant silence he continued. "As you all know, this whole thing started, well as far as I'm concerned anyway…Ok you'll get that soon. It all started when Vincent decided to enlist."

"Aren't you going back a little far?" Catherine asked warily.

"Might not be far enough…Bear with me ok?" He added quickly when he saw the doubting expression on her face. "As I was saying, when Vince enlisted I got a package from a private firm, Muirfield, who claimed working under the umbrella of the United States Army. At first I was a bit suspicious but after asking around I heard that many people in my specialty and other medical professions had received similar packages since the war started and that it was legit. The package contained instructions to test a number of individuals for a specific marker. What I didn't know was that my little package had in fact a distinctly different DNA marker type than anyone else. That's one thing I've only found out only recently…As I said, at the time I didn't know and that's why I wasn't as surprised as I should've been when I didn't get any positive result until I tested Vincent's blood. The package also came with a very encouraging outcome for anyone who would qualify for a very exclusive treatment. We all know the rest. My point is I not only kept the data from that package but also the original results on Vincent's blood. Of course back then I saw no reason to look further than the marker but in light of everything that happened, I did now and compared it to a more recent sample. I'm afraid that this Jeremy fellow has been playing fast and loose with your DNA and more than once."

JT stopped to take a few breaths and collect his thoughts anew. In doing so he caught Vincent's eyes on him and he saw extreme wariness in them. "The good news is that I'm now convinced I can reverse most of what's been done to you."

"What?" Vincent exclaimed incredulously.

"Wait, when I say that, you gotta understand something Vince. What they did to you that's exactly what they said it was. They jump started you, so to speak. I don't quite know when it was supposed to happen but...just like Catherine you were always going to become a beast."

By now Vincent had already figured that out, but nevertheless for a brief instant he had hoped that he really could turn back time. Then guilt for even that thought made him look at Catherine and when he didn't see the reproach he expected, he felt somewhat worse. He wasn't sure she had guessed his thoughts but now wasn't the time for it anyhow. "It's o.k. JT. I kinda knew. Still what did you mean by turn back?"

"Just what I said… I'm almost certain that the bite from last week actually started the process anyway. But the truly remarkable stuff I found came when I compared your original DNA with the newer one."

"Go on..." Vincent encouraged him.

"Remember the skeleton of a beast Catherine found last year?"

"How could we forget?"

"Right...well the DNA from that beast was different than yours in the sense that for all intents and purposes it's not human at all..." JT paused again allowing them to take it in.

"Are you implying that we're not...that we're part alien or something?" Vincent couldn't conceal his mounting impatience with the subject.

"Not exactly although that can't be ruled out…," JT replied without appearing to notice his friend's attitude. "What I'm saying is that DNA is specific to the species it belongs to and that this beast was fully a beast, not a hybrid like you or Catherine. But right now it's not the main concern." JT raised his hands to stop them from interrupting again. "Look what I have to tell you is really out of this world but I need you to understand what I'm talking about first..." When no more comments were forthcoming JT pursued, "to recap, Vincent's DNA is different from before because you got a super dose of the same DNA that animated that skeleton once." Once again he saw them about to protest and stopped them, "I don't mean similar or beastly...I mean the exact same one only that one is live, or normally mutated by our environment. And," he quickly added, it's a part of that other beast's DNA, Jeremy. In fact in his case, he's been hybridized with that DNA, a human one…"

"First off how do you know whose DNA that is?" Vincent asked testily.

"Because I found it in yours and in some traces of blood I found in the cell he was in. But wait there's more. I said that the beast wasn't human and that's very accurate but be that as it may there's a good reason it's extremely compatible with yours Vince."

"Why is that I'm afraid to ask?"

"When people asked for paternity testing the lab looks for a few specific set of genes that are common to many species, but that are expressed differently in human or say, lions for example, or closer to us, apes if you'd like but it's all the same. We have common DNA with all species of this world, even plants. Some of those common genes are the same but they also have minute differences that give brown eyes to one person and say green ones like Catherine's to another. Are you following me so far?"

"Go on."

"I'm not too sure but if you get to the point maybe it'll become clearer," Tess commented.

"Ok…when you're related to someone…and don't get me wrong all of us humans have a common ancestor, which is the other part that's gonna blow your minds but anyhow…when looking for DNA marker to indicate relationships between two people, there are some particular similarities that tell us how close a match one is with the other…"

"JT you're losing us here, is there a point to all that?" Catherine interjected.

JT took a deep breath before speaking anew, " I'm getting there…it's a good thing you're all sitting down cause I would've asked you to...the skeleton shares enough gene commonalities with Vincent that I can say with absolute certainty that he is a close relative of his."

"J.T we know he's a beast and I got beast DNA...that's nothing new."

JT ignored the impatient tone and went on, "if I were to give a result I'd confidently say he's your father."

The pregnant silence that followed this bold declaration only added to JT his slightly agitated state. "I know how it sounds..."

"Have you gone insane?" Catherine asked shakily.

"Look Cat, I'm the first one to find this idea beyond insane but I redid the test twice and the result is always the same..."

"Wait," Vincent interjected, "you said I had this other guy's DNA in me..."

"I said you have it now but I tested your original DNA. From before you got the first serum. The DNA you got injected with has different environmental changes in them and what's more, the markers I was given to test were based on that particular variation, not yours…What I mean is that before you were injected you already had this beast DNA woven through your own genes. Remember my comment about being a packrat? Remember when we were at the university and I started considering forensic medicine as an alternate..."

"Yeah, I remember, you were testing all kinds of shit for fun."  
>"Well, DNA was the big deal then. We'd just mapped the genome. Everybody in the biology community wanted into that. I'm sure you also remember I tested some baby hair…yours and mine?"<p>

"Yeah…" Vincent's voice trailed.

"Ok, I didn't say anything at the time because I thought I made a mistake…but there was something different about your DNA even then. I just wasn't well versed enough to pinpoint what that was. The test from the package only called for a partial result and it looked for an unusual combination of genes so that at the time I didn't make the connection. And in all the time since, it never occurred to me that the two were related. I had simply dismissed the first time I tested it as a mistake and didn't even check to see what the contamination might have been…Not until today…"

"You knew?" Vincent exclaimed.

"What do you think I knew Vincent? I had no idea beasts even existed back then. And afterward, all we did was try to find a way to reverse it and we never could. But how was I to know that a contamination I had found years before wasn't in fact a contamination? I had no idea it was the real answer to the problem. We always assumed Muirfield did all of it to you. I didn't know why nothing I tried ever worked. I tried everything I could to help you!"

"I know," Vincent said quietly. "I'm sorry," he added sincerely.

"You don't have to be sorry and particularly not about what you are. Told you that before but now I mean it even more…"

"Doesn't mean I have to like it…Now, how about we go back to your outrageous claim…"

"Yeah how is all this DNA stuff supposed to connect with some ten thousand year old beast?" Tess questioned.

"Yeah, JT really," Vincent asked, "I mean, you grew up with me. I know that the rest of the stuff we found is tough to explain, but you know I grew up? Right? I wasn't born ten thousand years ago…"

"Huh…well…that's the other part of what I needed to explain to you."

"Now I wonder if I really want to know more…"

"I'm sorry...I can only tell you what I found out."

"Wouldn't it be more plausible if all this was an elaborate hoax? Maybe those agents are doing this to us…" Catherine offered.

JT sighed deeply, "in a way, that would be nice to think so but it wouldn't explain you, or this Jeremy, now would it? Much more than this it wouldn't explain the other thing I deduced from those tests…"

"We know beasts exist, we got that obviously…" Catherine replied a little impatiently. "So why is that so important where they came from?"

"Actually it is...see," JT started again, "that's the other thing...Vincent is not just different from me or Tess or any other human without beast DNA...he's different from the other beasts as well, including you and this Jeremy."

"How so?" Vincent questioned reluctantly. Each of JT's revelation were like a knife in his gut and in spite of his skepticism, he couldn't discount the fact that his friend had never mislead him about his physical condition before.

"The science that created the hybrids...suffice to say it's beyond anything we could accomplish even now with the advances we've made. But what someone like me can do is recognize a synthetic hybrid from a naturally occurred one. See, as you may or may not know, cloning and even hybrid speciation has been done many times in laboratory by now. The common thing about these experiment is that they were in fact done in laboratories and the way the genome is modified differs from natural evolution. Those subjects are rarely viable by the way and they certainly couldn't be…reborn." Once again, JT stopped himself and looked at each in turn, making sure that they understood but what he got from them was more confusion. "I guess it's complicated but I'll try my best to make it clearer. When making these clones or hybrids, scientists usually sort of sign their work deep at the cellular level, to protect potential patent. You my friend have none of those artificial markers. Also, in an artificially hybridized animal, plant you name it, there are obvious signs of splicing in laboratories, compatibility issues that had to be resolved, the works. In short, it's obvious to anyone in the know that those are not naturally occurred. What Vincent has is an obviously natural hybridization that occurred between this 10000 years old beast and a human woman..."

"JT you can't be serious..."

"Come on, Vince you really think I would tell you something so outrageous without more proof to back it up?"

"What proof?"

"Remember the bones? Alistair's bones?"

"Of course…"

"I said that your original DNA had been naturally hybridized and I meant that. But there is the other form of biological manipulation that scientists today can easily recognize. That's cloning."

Vincent sighed irritably, "JT, we kind of figured something like that had occurred even though none of us can figure how that's possible. That's the only thing we could actually agree with in all you've said, I'm sure I speak for all of us, here."

"Alright, fair enough," JT said almost smugly, "But then how do you explain the re-occurrence of those clones throughout history?"

"If I knew that," Vince replied. "And wait, what do you mean history?"

"Those agents, they sent me a little more stuff since you left. Among other things, they managed to exhume both the man and woman from the 1940s murder case you saw before leaving."

"And…"

"Same DNA. And they also went back about 600 years. Based on history and some that's not all written in the generally accepted history books and even novels who might in fact have been based on real facts and romanticized…they've been searching for other examples of your presence throughout history. During those 600 years alone they found at least 5 other sets of DNA identical to Catherine and yours among others…And that's only what they could unearth."

"Nobody's even cloned a human that we know of," Catherine said, even as she tried to wrap her mind around the shocking concept, "not now, let alone 600 years ago!"

"600 years is only what the agency has been able to compile so far. As for the cloning in question, we're not talking about cloning a person and then impregnating a woman every time here. What's been done might never be possible for us. Not unless we get to understand a concept that is to this day only a somewhat uncertain theory…"

"What's that," Vincent questioned.  
>"Quantum mechanics."<p>

"Ok JT you're reaching now."

"And you think finding your clones throughout history, including bones that are right here right now belonging to one and that I tested myself as having belonged to a man who lived 160 years ago is not reaching? Of course it is. But as much as I have trouble believing even that, the science is inescapable…Your clones have been popping up all over the world for as far back as 10000 years based on what I found out today and what those agents sent me."

"And how does that translate to quantum mechanics? Time travel? Wouldn't be any crazier!" Vincent was trying really hard not to accuse his friend of bullshitting them but at this point, even considering his own situation this whole explanation was going nowhere.

"What? You think I'm making this up? Well I'm not and there's a reason you need to understand all that and believe in it. But we're not there yet, I understand. Please give me some leeway and who knows you might change your mind."

"You may as well go on but seriously dude, I'm starting to wonder if we're not seeing the effects of what they did to you right now…"

JT stopped to think for a moment and somehow, he came to a similar conclusion but from a whole different point of view. "You know what…I think it's actually possible. But not the way you think. I'm perfectly in control and clear headed. In fact, in spite of the craziness of what I'm saying, I feel like I can understand things better than I ever could before…Anyhow, that's for another discussion and it doesn't change the facts."

"The facts," Catherine questioned pointedly.

"Yes, the facts," JT insisted. "By the way, I haven't even gotten to your side of this yet…but if you don't have too much else to do right now maybe we could go on? I guess you'd all like to know why you're here…"

"I thought we were here to hear your story," Vincent replied.

"I'm talking about why you're beasts…"

"What? You know?" Catherine suddenly showed more interest.

"I have a pretty good theory yes. So can I go on?"

"Please do," she acquiesced. She then turned to Vincent who truly seemed on the verge of dropping out of the conversation altogether. "We really should at least let him finish…"

"Alright," Vincent reluctantly agreed.

"Well, ok then," JT started again, "ten thousand years ago, only between five and eight thousand human beings were left alive on the entire planet. The timeframe puts that in the middle of a mini ice age that caused many species to go extinct. Ours survived and eventually thrived, yes. But the point is that at the time, we were merely nomadic beings and definitely unable to use any form of science, let alone cloning."

"So, what you're saying is the same as us. It's not possible." Vincent interrupted.

"I'm saying We couldn't have done it," JT resolutely replied.

Vincent stared at his friend with an almost pitying expression but his stare was met with a certainty in JT's eyes that gave him pause. "Look, JT, I get that the situation is…almost nothing could surprise me considering what I am, what happened to Catherine," he added. "But what you're suggesting…"

"What is he suggesting," Tess asked, the unnerved tone of her voice cutting through.

"He's talking about alien intervention…Isn't that what you're saying JT?"

"Aliens…or another species we know nothing about that might have evolved on earth and might have been on the verge of extinction at the time. Hell for all I know it's beings from another dimension. The point is it all points to a scientist or scientists doing all this to preserve something or to send some kind of message maybe."

"What? They wanted to save beasts?"

"I'm not sure that's what it was exactly. I think…I think the point was to save humanity. There I said it."

"How on earth or anywhere else for that matter would create cloned beasts and dump them on unsuspecting humans supposed to save them?" Tess was really beginning to align herself with Vincent on the skepticism bandwagon.

"There's something you haven't gotten to before when you were checking the search on the laptop. While you were gone, I've read the accounts of the 1940s murder trial and it led me to cross reference with that John Reynolds you mentioned earlier, given all the coincidences piling up. That man was, in fact, Alistair and Rebecca's son. He had a twin sister called Anna and they both lived to be respectively 101 and 105. That alone is a feat, you'll have to admit. But when I pulled up the last few photographs of them, I also might have stumbled on a partial answer. It's still a hypothesis but…let me show you," he said, and then he woke the laptop from its sleep mode and turned it towards the others. An enlarged photograph of a man and a woman obviously in their 30s showed up on the screen."

"I guess they didn't have many pictures taken of them in their old age…what does that prove other than the resemblance?" Tess asked. But a little smile on JT's lips told her she was missing something.

"That picture was taken on their 100th birthday."

"Get out of town!" Tess exclaimed. "That's gotta be a typo or something."

"The photograph was part of an article written the same day it was taken, as part of a tradition to celebrate centenarians. The reporter who wrote the article said that he almost didn't send it in because he thought he was being played. Only after he was shown the actual birth certificates and photographs of the twins covering a large portion of the past hundred years did he agree to send it to his publisher. Nowadays, you can be sure a thing like this would have brought the Enquirer or its British equivalent to their doors…"

"But they almost look younger than me!" Heather opened her mouth for the first time since they came back.

"Don't exaggerate," Catherine said, "you look like a child."

"Do not! And you know what I mean. I've seen old people before. They don't look like that in their 50s, let alone 100!"

"Ok, what you're saying here, if I got this right," Catherine turned to JT, "is that they were seriously healthy."

"Healthy? According to the obituary they both died not of illnesses like one might think but violent deaths. John was knifed in a mugging and Anna, believe it or not was mauled by a lion during a safari...at the ripe age of 105 remember? And she wasn't there by accident. She went every year for 40 years until she died."

"And how do you know that?"

"Mauled to death?" Catherine repeated that part of the account with an awed expression that was almost comical.

"Yes, and she was protecting a young girl who'd been cornered by the pride."

"Seriously?" was all Vincent uttered but the look on his face told another story. This part of the little impromptu lecture had a definite effect on him.

"Well, by now we know that your side of the family is slightly more prone to violent death than the average," JT said, trying a little levity, although he soon saw that his quip didn't quite move his audience. "Anyway, the point is they didn't die of old age or disease. That would be because neither one of them got sick, hardly ever. Their children are the picture of health as well, although none of them show the same almost unnatural youthfulness as their parents. And according to the agents, they all tested as predisposed but none of them became beasts."

"Ok," Vincent said, "I'll bite...you're saying that beasts can confer great health to their descendants."

"What I'm saying is that this inherited health is the actual reason for your continued existence." JT answered very seriously.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter XII

A stunned silence met JT's claim.

Then Heather broke it nervously. "But that's too simple!"

"Simple?!" JT exclaimed incredulously. "Think about it for just a moment. Turn back time to when maybe 8000 people were left alive. That was not so long after at least three other hominid species had already gone extinct."

"Eight thousands isn't such a small number," Heather defended her first reaction.

"That small a number," JT insisted still, "and the fact that almost all of them lived in the same region, somewhere on the coast of Africa meant that if anything were to happen untoward, like say a severe earthquake, a volcanic eruption, a tsunami or most likely a plague, that could've spelled the end of us. And that, just as we were about to create our first civilizations and the basis for where we are now. Back then there were no civilizations to speak of, no medicine, only basic shelters like frail huts or most likely caves. Survival was a daily battle and at that time we were very close to losing that battle. Basically it's a miracle we pulled through. But what if it's not such a miracle after all?"

"You mean to say that whoever those people were... if they were people in the sense we know, they saw that and somehow just thought up this whole crazy scheme to help?" Vincent questioned but with less skepticism than he had demonstrated thus far.

"That's exactly what I'm saying except for the part where they 'Just' thought up something. That's not quite how it happened…"

"And how exactly do you know what really happened? You have a crystal ball?" Catherine asked him.

"Better," JT replied to their surprise. "I've been telling you all this because what you're about to hear would've sounded like mere fiction otherwise…"

"And what's that?" Vincent asked in turn.

"Your story…from the beginning."

"My what?" Vincent retorted incredulously. "Come on, JT, my story isn't very complicated and frankly I don't think it had anything to do with how civilization began!"

"Actually, your real story has everything to do with it. When I learned about it and then found out all this stuff…that's the combination of the two that threw me for a loop earlier. It's nearly unbelievable."

"I'd say a little more than just nearly," Catherine remarked.

"Wait till you've heard what I have to say, and by the way, it's your story too."

"Just where did you get that story?" Vincent asked, and at this point he was really starting to question his friend's equilibrium.

A cough by the entrance stopped JT from answering himself. The group turned toward the new arrival and found that Agent Carson was back. "I'm hoping he got it from something we'd really like to get back," he said without bothering with greetings. "I'm just wondering if he should really tell you this now."

JT got up at this, his agitation suddenly mounting again. "I don't know if we're talking about the same thing but if we are, they have to hear it!"

"But are they ready to believe? You may not know this," Agent Carson said calmly, "but ever since this revelation a hundred years ago, we've been searching for the means to do something about it but nothing worked so far. That's the reason we tried to deal with the problem with conciliation rather than confrontation. All in the hope that your friends here would thrive and not face the same fate so many of their predecessors have for the past 1500 years."

"I'm not too sure what you're referring to," JT replied tensely, "but they have a right to know what I found out. And besides, maybe that's what's been missing the whole time! After all, this revelation wasn't just meant for you guys. I think that the best way to figure what to do about it is to tell those it concerns the most."

"We don't quite know the consequences of telling them…" Agent Carson said then but he was obviously wavering.

"I think it can't be worse than it's been so far…"

"We're still here," Vincent interjected testily. "What the hell are you talking about?"

Agent Carson turned to him, moving further into the room as he did so. "Your friend just told you. It's about your story. It's not all pleasant to say the least. You may not like some of what you learn at all."

"First off, I think this whole deal is crazy and whatever you both think, a story is just that…a story. No one can tell what happened ten thousand years ago if anything did at all."

"Your son could." Agent Carson deadpanned.

Everyone but JT stared at the agent in utter disbelief.

"Ok, I've had it," Vincent finally said. "Someone wake me up from this nightmare and maybe then everyone will start making sense again!"

"Hear Hear," Tess seconded. "Have you all gone insane? JT was already on shaky grounds but now this dude comes in and is talking even worse nonsense. I think I need more drinks…"

JT turned to them in consternation, "Guys! I thought you understood by now! It's all true!"

"JT, we let you go on because you seemed so damn intent on telling us all this stuff but really, seriously? What you told us…I've seen science-fiction with more credibility than that!" Tess uttered with a hint of contempt.

"I'll bet you told them about the entanglement?" Agent Carson asked.

"Didn't even get around to that yet..."

"Alright," the agent seemed to rally, "how about I bring someone who can help explain a few basics on that after he gave you some blood for show and tell."

This time JT also stared at the agent questioningly, "whose blood?"

Instead of answering directly he turned back to the entrance. "Come in Harold, they won't bite...much," the man smiled a little at his own wits while a mousy young man crossed the threshold hesitantly. Even without the lab coat one could see him hanging in a lab. He sported longish dark brown hair desperately in need of a comb but that also gave him a look of innocence. His features were unremarkable except for large intelligent eyes that seemed to take it all in at once. Then Harold met Vincent's stare only briefly, where he immediately saw recognition before quickly turning his attention to the equipment instead.

"Who's that?" Catherine asked when she noticed Vincent's irritation at the new arrival.

"That'd be the little prick who knocked me out a couple weeks ago. Still don't know how."

The newcomer seemed to take it as an invitation to explain. "I'm real proud of that breakthrough. It's based on the gem and a frequency it emits..."

"Harold I don't think this crowd is ripe for that particular lecture right now."

"Right," the young man floundered. "So...why am I here? Have you got some other technical problem?"

"We'll get to that in a moment but for now all we need is a vial of your blood."

Nervously , Harold nodded his assent.

"Vincent if you could?" When Vincent didn't move he said, "I'd like you to do the testing with JT this time and when the results are in maybe you'll be more open to our explanations."

"Just curious but…why him?"

"How about we keep it a surprise?"

Vincent looked to Catherine and JT in turn who simply shrugged uncertainly. "Alright. JT do we have a puncture kit?"

"Of course," JT replied, immediately prompted into action as he went to a glass cabinet to gather the supplies.

"Well, looks like it's gonna be a long night. How about we make the best of it and go grab a couple pies? Lectures always make me hungry," Heather offered.

"Great idea," Tess agreed, "I'm driving."

"So...four years at the university and they managed to teach you that strings get tangled." Tess mocked Harold. "Cause you know my mom coulda told you that for free."

For a moment Catherine thought he was finally going to show some impatience but same as the past two hours the young man graciously took in the mockery. "Let's just say it's a little more complicated than that..."

"I'd say it's just a bunch of mumbo jumbo to me," Tess replied. "That Shrody, Shrodinly…"

"Shrodinger's Cat."

"Right, that one. Didn't sound like science to me, sounded more like some psychopath's idea."

"It was a brilliant thought experiment and it actually put a lot of what science is in perspective. The observer changes whatever it is they're experimenting on. Maybe even the idea that our entire existence is a product of our conscious mind, not actual reality."

"Ok, stop already! My head'll explode." Tess exclaimed impatiently.

Catherine saw that the young man was becoming upset and she moved to try and make him feel a little better, "You know, no one says what you're saying isn't true…" Catherine's eyes turned a little accusingly toward her feisty friend at that point, "we're just a little overwhelmed by all this, is all."

"I tried to make it as easy to understand as possible."

"I know you have and we thank you for that, Harold."

"I'll be damned!" A loud expression of surprise from Vincent drew their attention back to him and JT, and they guessed this meant they must have gotten the result of the test on Harold's blood. Vincent turned back towards them but stared directly at the young man with a stupefied expression. "How are we related?" He asked him a little bruskly.

Catherine's interest was immediately piqued. "What do you mean?"

"According to this test, Harold here is mine and your grandson..."

"What?!"

"Oh that," Harold simply replied, "to be exact my grandmother was Clara Reynolds Reid and my biological grandfather was William Keller. Never knew them. They died shortly after my mother and her twin sister were born. As far as beasts, I'm not one, I'm just predisposed like my entire family."

"So now are you beginning to see the big picture, Vincent?" Agent Carson asked.

"See maybe...understand it, definitely not."

Catherine was still staring at Harold to the point of making him uncomfortable. "I can't believe this."

"I've known for a while about all this but seeing you both in the flesh, I must admit when I came in I got a little chill... But then, you're not really my grandparents. It's complicated…"

"I know how difficult it must be to understand." Agent Carson interrupted. "And frankly, considering you hardly ever remember anything from those other lives, I suppose you were not meant to. Although it's hard to know what those who started this meant..."

"Didn't you say you had some information about that?" Vincent asked.

"It tells us the why and some of the how but not all of it," JT told him. "And I know that telling you a story from some journal depicting a vision sounds less than realistically plausible but it's also the best explanation for all the rest…"

"So when do we get to hear this fable of yours?" Tess petulantly asked.

"Maybe Heather should do the honors since she's the one who clued me in to it."

Everybody turned to Heather at this. She demurred a little but still answered, "look, I did find this crazy tale in a journal…Sounded more like fantasy than anything, like some dream."

"Heather," Catherine questioned, "which journal are they referring to?"

"Oh you know the other two journals I showed you earlier…"

"You told me this John guy was some sleuth…"

"And that part was true. It's just that he also had this weird past life or something vision that he recounted in details. Real heavy stuff. Thought it was a little insane when I read it, but I mentioned it to JT because it talked about beasts and all kinds of other stuff that can't be true…"

"So you do have the journals," Agent Carson asked with obvious interest. "I was afraid you'd lost those too."

"You know about those?"

"I don't think you were here earlier when we mentioned our founder? That was John Reynolds, the man who wrote the journals."

"Oh…" Heather replied, "then I guess you must be real happy about that…"

"Ecstatic in fact, young woman. But what matters now is what's in them. I'm hoping that in spite of Tess's skepticism about Harold's teachings you might have gleaned enough from it to begin to understand some of what John remembered."

"I gotta say," Heather offered a little uncertainly, "it did give me a little insight but I still think it's crazy and…" Heather turned to Vincent uncomfortably, "It's a little rough…I'm not sure I'm the one who should…"

"You'll do fine," Catherine encouraged her. "You're not responsible for whatever is in that journal anyway."

Heather nodded but a hint of the awkwardness still remained as she went to fetch the journals from the workstation where JT had left them. She quickly perused the first one, setting it aside and then her face lit up when she found what she was looking for in the second one. "There it is. Better make yourselves comfortable. It's a long story as they say…"  
>After waiting for the others to take seats around the large wooden table occupying the center of the room, she herself sat down and reopened the journal to the right page with some flourish. "Alright…so as they say, Once upon a time…"<p>

_December 8, 1899_

_When I woke up this morning my only concern was how I was going to start my investigation into this cold case Arthur wrote me about. He got it from back in the new world and told me the whole thing should intrigue me, not only for the facts in the case, but because I might have a connection to the protagonists. Low and behold, when I asked my adoptive mother, she relented and told me a little about my real parents, which she'd been loath to do all this time. My mother has always been there for us but the subject of our parents has remained a taboo and we soon learned not to ask her but both Anna and I have been secretly curious about our biological parents for years. It took some convincing but after I told her the few details my friend gave me in his correspondence, I finally got my mother to open up about my parents and after a few minutes into the conversation with her, I understood why she never mentioned the details of Rebecca and my father's passing before. However, as difficult as it was to hear, it's also right up my alley, just as Arthur surmised. I'd bet he's thinking of making it into another of his detective's stories. _

_The point is that hadn't it been for what happened to me next, I probably would have gotten on the next ship to America, only too eager to investigate this apparent mystery. However, the plot thickened considerably when after I left my mother's apartment and returned to the adobe I share with my dear Anna and her twins from her ill-fated union, I was struck with a terrible headache and took to my bed after ingesting some laudanum, which at first hardly made a dent into the agony I felt. _

_After a while however, the pain seemed to finally subside but that's when I lost all track of when or where I was and a new frightening reality replaced my own for a time. I would never have believed it more than just a strange nightmare hadn't been for the fact that in addition to the fantastic story I received through it, I was also told exactly what happened to my parents and I eventually verified the veracity of the tale I received to my utter amazement and fright. So because I can't be sure I'll ever be able to give the message I have been charged with in person, I endeavor to recount here in writing what was revealed to me. Unbelievably, it seems the most amazing and frightening part of our family's history takes root in events that occurred more than ten thousand years ago. _

'_Lot watched the little animal as she moved about the compound. His master warned him to stay away from her but she fascinated him. Her little teeth didn't look like they could do any damage to him or any pray, and neither could those ineffective claws. She wore a fur for only covering, and according to the master, he shouldn't judge that either. Of all the other two legged animals his master had been observing since coming to this world, these were the only ones left and there were few of them. Something in them made them fragile and ephemeral. Lot understood little of his master's science but he was still interested mostly because there was little else to do for him. He and his brothers and sisters accompanied the scientists as labour and security when they came to this world but there was little to fear around these parts and as far as labour was concerned, most of the hard work was behind them. Many of his brethren had to be restrained by their own masters because they were getting too antsy around the little animals. But Lot was proud to think that the master thought much of him and didn't put the collar on him this day. He could still feel the itch around his neck from wearing it too long. _

_He loved his master in spite of all the restraints. Maybe that was why Ezekiel favored him this way. Sometimes, he wished he could do what his master did when around the little animals. The master could disguise himself and thus not scare them. Once or twice he had tried to approach the little female animal but her screams had pierced his hearing so much, he'd shied away rather than risk hurting her and incurring the master's wrath. The master had brought her and a few others of the little animals to the compound and he was trying to communicate with them as he planned to teach them as well. The other masters disagreed with Ezekiel in that. They said one shouldn't interfere even if there was little chance of survival for the little animals. Outside the compound, the world was very hostile. Although the cold had begun to retreat, there was very little to eat for the little animals and nowhere else to go. They stayed near water and ate the smelly sea animals that Lot found a little repulsive but nourishing enough under the circumstances. He'd have preferred to hunt for the land animals but the masters said they shouldn't be seen on land as much as possible. Lot knew deep down the masters feared they would hunt the little animals the way they had another of the two legged species because of the scarcity of prey. It had been somewhat unfair of their masters to restrain them all because of it as his brethren had only followed their natural instincts. But the master told him personally that protecting these little animals was a priority, as he called it, and Lot was determined to do as he was told. Besides, the little female animal was no longer a prey in his mind. There was something so appealing about her little curves, somewhat similar and yet so different from the females of his kind. _

_The little animal came closer then, carrying a jar to the nearby fountain and Lot backed up as far as he could in the wall recess he'd been observing from. Her musky smell was so enticing, almost more so than his female. He knew if Ella found out about his dalliance, she might hurt the little female and he made sure to keep her in the dark about his unnatural interest. His problem was that the mating with Ella had not been a normal one. He'd been forced into it by the circumstances. He longed to have the connection some of his brothers and sisters had but the mate he was destined for died during the transit to this world and the master made the choice of a new mate for him. _

_The reason given to him was that they couldn't have fighting over mates among the Jobans, his race's name, which happened frequently as a mating ritual on their home world. Most of them had been mated before leaving just as Lot had been but losing the one he fought so hard for had changed him and possibly caused him to become so interested in one not of his own. Somehow deep down, he was hoping he could fight one of the males for her and establish his dominance to please her. _

_Maybe, Lot thought to himself, if Ezekiel had not insisted on keeping some of them around, he might have completed his mating with Ella and pleased the master. However right then he couldn't see himself with the Joban female. As he watched the little female finished filling her jar with water and headed back towards the room Ezekiel had assigned to her. She had been so grateful to whom she saw as an older version of her own kind. The truth was very different however and would have frightened the little animal as much as the Jobans did. Ezekiel had reptilian features and a scaly skin with a greenish tint. He also stood twice as tall as Lot even. His glowing yellow eyes looked almost the same as the Jobans' but there stopped the similarities. The Jobans were the mammals of their world whereas Ezekiel belonged to the dominant species called the Darzan, a proud and extremely advanced species descended from reptiles. Strangely, on most worlds they visited, including this one, reptiles were an inferior and mostly unintelligent class of animals. At least it was strange to Lot. He figured maybe that was why their world was one of the rare peaceful ones they visited, with a race of measured and caring people in charge instead of the hot headed Jobans. His musings were suddenly interrupted by a loud scream of recrimination emanating from the little female. Lot turned his attention back to her and saw that another animal had come to her in the meantime. It was a male animal who had been bothering her for a while, no doubt intent on mating with her. Lot's instincts fought with his need to please the master but when the little female screamed louder and pushed the male away in apparent fear, Lot's resolve was silenced and he ran to the two animals with a frightening growl. By then, he couldn't reason anymore and he didn't hear the scream of terror that replaced that which had merely been one uttered in anger by the female. The little male watched him coming but instead of taking a fighting stance he seemed paralyzed, more like a cornered prey than a rival. Even as Lot tore into him savagely, the animal indeed put up little fight, and soon, a little like some savannah animals who accepted their fate, faced with a predator that had them locked in their jaws his life blood ran out and Lot dropped him with a triumphant growl. He then grabbed the little female and drove her forcefully inside her little room, soon having fulfilled his need for mating and completely oblivious to her terror throughout. Only afterward, when his mating haze retreated did he realize what he had done. The little female was shaking uncontrollably at his feet, bleeding from the many scratches he inflicted upon her. She didn't even look at him, her head hidden under her tiny arms. As he left the room he scented something that told him all at once what had been so irresistible about the female but he was convinced nothing would come of it. _

_In desperation, he looked around and found that no one had noticed the mangled body of the male as of yet. In the hope of not disappointing his master and incur his wrath, Lot decided to try and conceal his crime. He took the body of the male animal and dropped it in the nearby sea. He then came back and cleaned all the traces of the struggle he could, even scaring the female again into washing in the little basin that had been provided for just such a purpose by Ezekiel. The scratches weren't deep and he didn't think Ezekiel would even notice them as he didn't pay so close an attention to each of the animals. In the following days, his gamble proved a winning one as no one even seemed to notice the absence of the male animal. Although he knew he shouldn't Lot couldn't help himself and he continued watching over the female, now the one all his instinct told him was his true mate and strangely, over time, the little one began to be less scared of her strange admirer. All the more so when one day, Ella came around and Lot had to fight her to protect his unusual mate. _

_He defeated Ella and had to put her down but among his kind it wasn't uncommon for ill matched mates to do so and although he was disappointed with Lot for his aggressive behavior, Ezekiel simply accepted the fact and didn't try to mate him again. _

_Meanwhile, Lot went on taking care of the little female discreetly. He brought her food regularly and made sure she was comfortable and safe. A few months after the fated day however, Lot understood that his mistake might not remain a secret. The little female who he eventually learned was called Isa, began to show and Lot could sense the little one inside of her wasn't just a little animal. His kind's pregnancies were shorter than the little animals as he'd noticed before. Theirs lasted three quarters of their planet's revolution around their sun whereas the Jobans' pregnancies only lasted half a full revolution. Soon, Lot understood that the little one might be in trouble and his fear for his offspring overcame his fears for himself. He went to throw himself at the mercy of his master, begging him to help his offspring and the little female. Ezekiel threw him in a cell at first, obviously disgusted with his formally favorite Joban, He told Lot that the abomination shouldn't be allowed to live but he still went to see Isa. Lot later found out that his master changed his mind and instead of killing the offspring and the mother, he performed a procedure that birthed him a son and saved him and the mother. For that he was grateful to his master and as such didn't resent him as much as he could have for his imprisonment. One day a few months later, Ezekiel came to present his offspring to him and he made Lot promise to keep him safe and a secret for the rest of their lives, less the other Darzans might learn of his existence. Lot swore on his life, all too glad to protect his own against all threats._

_Fortunately for Lot, Ezekiel believed him and he freed him but from then on, he had to wear the collar at all time. The little female had named his son Adi and he was a strong one in spite of not showing any of the distinctive features of the Jobans. At first, Lot was somewhat uncomfortable with the boy's appearance but along the years he learned to accept the boy for what he was and so did the boy. Maybe because his son taught him by example, Lot learned to curb his own instinctive aggressiveness. Even when the boy was ten and his mother died of a disease that ravaged her kind, Lot grieved but didn't show the aggression common to his kind under such circumstances. The boy soon surpassed his father and mother in intelligence and curiosity for the natural world but he never treated Lot like an inferior. Together with Ezekiel, they became a strange but close knit family. In time the boy grew into a strong young man who could've easily overcome any of his kind but he rather took to them given that from his other half, the Jobans, he was only allowed to frequent his own father, lest the rest of the Jobans found out what he was. _

_The first real hurdle in Adi's life came when he began to wish for a mate of his own. When he turned twenty one of his planet's solar years, Lot's son began seeking for one and soon became nearly obsessed with one of the young females in a nearby village. The female had long dark hair that only made her striking and unusual green eyes sparkle all the more. Her heart shape face reminded Lot a little of the boy's mother in that she had a grace uncommon among the little animals. Her name was Irzu and Lot knew from the first that his son had found his perfect mate. Unfortunately, Ezekiel worried so about the consequences of such an union, he ignored Lot's warning about trying to keep them apart and he forbade Adi from pursuing her. As Lot had feared, for the first time in his life Adi defied the master but rather than confronting him with his decision about the female he took her away and neither Lot nor Ezekiel heard from them for almost three solar years. _

_The boy seemed to have vanished as he cleverly covered his tracks even from Lot. However after they despaired ever to see him again, Adi came back on his own, scared of himself... What had stayed hidden within him all those years had suddenly overcome him fully almost without warning. His Joban traits only seemed to surface when he became emotional or in the presence of other Jobans however. Although Lot was a little wary of this new development, he still greeted his son back with open arms. Adi told them that he had to leave his mate and his unborn child behind for fear of what he might do to them. Adi was so worried at his father and the master's reaction that at first he refused to tell them where Irzu was but in the end Ezekiel convinced him that he wouldn't hurt her and that she might in fact be in danger if they didn't get to her. By the time Ezekiel found them the pregnancy was almost to term. To the master's relief, the young woman was strong and gave birth to healthy twins, a boy and a girl. For another three years Adi pined for his mate but he refused to go near her or his children for fear of what he might do to her or the children, who weren't Jobans enough to ever turn themselves according to Ezekiel. Meanwhile, Irzu lived in the village, raising the children with the help of the master who took care of hers and the children's needs. Ezekiel found that this birthing was in fact a fortuitous event as he observed that the children displayed the same robust health conferred previously to their father. In time they proved to have great longevity as well and became part of legends among the little animals. Ezekiel told me they were classified as humans for humanoid, but I only saw them as little animals, all except for my son and his children. Eventually, Adi returned to his Irzu when he feared he'd lose her for good as men of her village saw her as a prospective mate again when she stopped nursing the babes. Surprisingly, Irzu took him back without fear or anger and they raised their children together until a terrible tragedy befell all of us, almost five years later. Until then, Adi had been very careful to hide his other half from not only the villagers but also from the people in the compound. He had managed to avoid the other Jobans as well by not going there as often ever since he had had the change. Unfortunately one day he went to visit Ezekiel for advice on teaching the children and one of Ezekiel's female Jobans was also present, a newly come of age female that was wooing me. Her name was Vela. Her reaction to Adi had been of immediate aggression, and she attacked him on sight, forcing him to change to defend himself. He might not have survived the encounter but I fought her and unfortunately she fled before I could stop her. Soon, Ezekiel got the visit of two other of his kind and they accused him of the worst crime his kind apparently could commit, which was to interfere with the natural order. _

_They ordered Adi confined immediately to my utter distress. They had also found out about his mate and Ezekiel sent me ahead to hide her and the children. I managed to do just that but tried as he might, Ezekiel was not able to save Adi from his brethren's wrath and they had him killed in spite of Ezekiel's pleas for his ward. They also figured out eventually who the boy's father was and my fate was also sealed along with all the other Jobans of my pack. Almost a hundred of them... Loath to kill one of their own however, the Darzan condemned Ezekiel to remain on this planet for the rest of his life, never to see his home world again. The Darzan also decreed that he should be the one to terminate Jobans they considered contaminated by Ezekiel's heresy. _

_Ezekiel was devastated not only by his own punishment but also by the cruelty he felt his own kind was demonstrating. However he knew that if he didn't do as they told him, they may just find a way to destroy all the animals, including Adi's precious children, who he knew were the future of their kinds. To save them, he did as he was ordered but he also kept something from his brethren. _

_I was the last one to be executed, but before he did, Ezekiel told me a secret. He would make sure that my brothers and sisters would live on, how, I could not understand just yet, but he swore to me that it would help save not only us but that it would also benefit the animals and the grandchildren I had saved. By then I had told him where I secreted my son's family and Ezekiel vowed to me that he would take care of them for the rest of their lives as if they were his own and that someday, I would also see my son again. I asked to see my grandchildren once more as a mercy before the end. By then they were already much stronger and smarter than their own kinds, just like my son had been and it made me proud. I went to the eternal sleep with this blessing in my soul. I had not believed I would ever come back in spite of Ezekiel's assurances to the contrary but little did I know, I woke up one day, and nothing was ever the same. _


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter XIII

_I should have told him before I died, but how was I to know this would happen? I never thought I'd live again, let alone live the way I did…My first awareness came in the middle of a battlefield. Strangely, the instrument I was using felt familiar to me even though none of my species ever used swords in a fight. Not only would it have been an inefficient weapon given what we were but it was also a crude weapon from long past. And yet, I yielded it with skill until my inner nature showed and my opponent fell when the shock of seeing me took away his ability to fight back. Somehow, I could think better than before, even though the same instinctive nature still inhabited me. I was convinced of the nobleness of my actions and looked around to see many of my kind fighting by my side. The battle was soon over, the enemy exterminated, never to testify of what they had seen. Yet, I knew that they were a cruel enemy we needed to defeat and that, for whatever reason, I didn't take pleasure in destroying them. It was so incongruous a thought because as I looked around me and the blood stopped rushing through my veins, I saw the massacre that had occurred on this battlefield, a worse sight I'd never beheld even at the worst of times between the Jobans. But there it was, I wasn't a Joban anymore. I even knew that humans called us beasts. I knew a lot of things I shouldn't have known, given I was just reborn. A young man covered in blood and gore came to me then, a feral smile playing on his lips. "I see that Emrys was right my liege. He told us that you're inner beast would awaken soon, and there it is."_

_I heard myself answering and realized at last what had happened. The man in front of me wasn't just a man. Inside of him I could still feel the beast that had just been fighting by my side. His name was Galahad. "It is so strange but at the same time I feel so powerful…"_

"_You were always a beast on the battlefield Arturo, same as your father before you. Now it's simply plain for all to see," the young man replied, slapping me on the shoulder in what I knew now was a friendly gesture. _

_The other men that had fought with us were gathering, going back towards a line of trebuchets our soldiers had wielded to thin the lines of the enemy with flaming pitch. I knew those were my men, my army and that they fought for my kingdom. The Britons were assembling under my rule and soon the enemy of our fair country would be defeated. Then I saw him, my former master, in the form he used to show the animals...no no longer animals; humans. Humans as I was now. Lot was a name long past. Now I was known as the recently anointed king Arturo. But I knew even if I couldn't see his true form anymore that his time was coming to an end. Ezekiel or Emrys as he was known now watched me coming with obvious interest. "Master," I called him more out of old habit than anything else. Deep down I knew he was at most a protector and mentor now. The human part of me wouldn't stand for the idea of indentured servitude._

_"You know better my friend," Emrys good naturedly corrected him. _

_I eventually took to this life but an unexpected sense of struggle persisted for a long time. Emrys told me that he had waited very long to bring me back after seeing a few of the matches going south. He'd had to terminate at least twenty of the returns after a few generations and he feared having to do the same for me. As it was his choice had been based on predictions he gleaned from the quantum field, whatever that was, but he was still a little worried that the match could've changed the outcome. That was why he elected to guide my human half from a very young age. I could tell that Emrys had chosen well, at least until one day, the one mistake my former master had made changed everything. That was the day I met Guinevere and recognized her immediately as Irzu. That wouldn't have been the problem. The beast inside her was. Emrys had matched her with Vela. Immediately the issue became obvious to me but Emrys was oblivious to the drama that was about to unfold. Before I fought her off that fateful day 8000 years ago, in the vernacular of my new day and age, Vela and I had been courting each other and were well on our way to be mated. My mind knew that this would never happen. I could even feel that Vela was now feeling her human's emotions as if they were her own. Neither of them could remember their past lives but somehow she was still waiting for her mate, one that had become both the human and the beast's mate in time. Try as I may however I couldn't stop myself from communicating the depth of my desire for her to the human half of me. Irzu or Guinevere as she was now known was a stunning beauty herself and Arturo fell head over heels for her. This single happenstance would in time change the heroic man Emrys had chosen for me into a jealous and vindictive monster. The first manifestation of that occurred when he realized that his mentor disapproved of his choice for a wife. Emrys had already vetted a future wife for the king, a beast matched with a woman named Morgana. Arturo pretended to heed his warning, and even invited Morgana to stay at the castle but he soon sent him on some errands a long way from Camelot, the fortress they were all living in, including Guinevere. _

_As soon as Emrys left however, he gave up all pretence of interest for Morgana and instead spent weeks pursuing Guinevere, offering anything he could think of to gain her affections. Then, when all he got in return was a kind of reserved respect, and as a last resort, he cruelly threatened to remove the protection against bandits and the Saxons her home township had enjoyed for a few years already. The poor girl knew nothing of the future and wanted to protect her people and her family so she gave in to Arturo and they were married within days. By the time Emrys returned the deal was sealed and he knew that this could change everything. At first his anger was solely directed at me and he even sought means of purging the beast half. But although I am convinced he must have found a way, he couldn't kill me. He felt he had failed me and my son again. By then I could barely separate myself from Arturo in thoughts or actions. I knew the mating was forced and ill-fated but I couldn't turn back. At first when my son fatefully arrived in Camelot with Emrys I anticipated the worst but when nothing happened I thought my fears had not been justified and we even struck a true friendship and became comrades in arm if not father and son since he had no memory of my existence. _

_By then I had figured out that Emrys did something different for me. I alone remembered all. None of the other beasts remembered any of their already numerous past lives, and even if I had wanted to tell Adi who he really was it wouldn't have worked. Lancelot, as he was named in this life, had a very different outlook than my son used to have. He longed to be a knight and to gain honour in battle but until he'd found us he hadn't dared fight alongside other men for fear they would discover his secret. In Arturo's inner court beasts were still worshipped, although most of the common folks had no idea that the safety they enjoyed was in great part due to the nature of their leader and his knights. It was so that in the beginning, Lancelot found a new family with the knights of Camelot. I had convinced myself that I could have it both ways since Lancelot didn't show any outward signs of interest for the new queen._

_Emrys still tried to convince me to send Lancelot away for fear of what he was certain would happen but by I blinded myself to the truth and stopped listening to my mentor. Deep down I knew Emrys was right but I buried the knowledge under that blanket of denial and kept on believing that Guinevere would honor her vows. The two held on for a few years, clinging to the notion of chivalry that Arturo used to stand for but one day, when Lancelot accompanied the queen on a visit to her family, what had to happen did. In a moment of weakness, Lancelot and Guinevere gave in to their smoldering passion, guiltily vowing to never let it happen again lest it would destroy Arturo's vision for the new kingdom. _

_However as fate would have it, Guinevere had not been able to give Arturo the heirs he longed for but after one night with Lancelot she became pregnant. Had we been normal humans she might've hidden the true paternity of the offspring but the beasts in both Lancelot and I knew almost from the first. In desperation and to save their unborn child, Lancelot and Guinevere ran away and weren't found for many years. During this whole time Arturo's bitterness festered and he charged his remaining knights with the task of finding the runaway couple. He ordered them to be brought back to stand judgment for the crime of adultery, which he declared was high treason in this case. My voice was mostly silenced by then except for the rare moments when I could talk to Emrys directly. Meanwhile he tried everything to change my human half disposition. To no avail. _

_Eventually, Lancelot and Guinevere were found along with two sets of twins they were humbly raising while living as peasants in another kingdom. Brought back to the court, they accepted their fate but begged the king to spare their children. Emrys managed to convince Arturo of sparing the babes but not the lovers. He had to watch helplessly as they were hung the very next day after a mockery of a trial. Their last words were a vow to each other of eternal love beyond the grave as if the poor souls had guessed their true fate. The 12000 years old Emrys died shortly after but not before he vowed to return and try repairing the damage he'd caused. However as much as I trusted my former master, I couldn't see the end of my horrible remorse, trapped in a mind full of hate that I had put there till the end of my days. _

_And no matter how much I wished my death had been the end, a terrible cycle of violence ensued in most of my next lives, which I soon understood would seemingly be an unending torment. Almost 1400 years later and after the worst manifestation of the curse I found myself caught in during my last life, a glimmer of hope finally shone. When I was reawakened once more in the year 1880 with the horrible memories of the last life all too fresh in my mind, I found something new along for the ride. At last, the master fulfilled his promise and returned but not as a full entity sharing the body I inhabited. He is more a part of my own consciousness, and gives me awareness like I've never had before. Unfortunately, even that might not be powerful enough to overcome my other half's will although at first as always before we meet my son and his mate the man is almost the kind and honorable man he used to be. He is now named Daniel Ddraigs, the Gaelic translation of the word Dragon, or as it used to be known as an honorific title of kings, Pen Ddraigs for Pendragon, a name now known worldwide mostly thanks to our recounting of a version of the event of 1400 years ago to some monk in the 13__th__ century. Although the recounting had been mostly accurate, it was angled to shed a much better light on Arturo than it should have; but as I've heard it said, the victor always writes history. I should mention to you who will receive all this that the man I inhabit has not just changed in personality because of the events of those days. He also soon began to share the memories I carry around with me. Not all at first but as we grow in age he always gleans more and more from my half of him and it makes him all the more unstable and dangerous. I myself had lost a lot of my own self during the intervening years and only the calming presence I feel with me now allowed me to find myself once more. _

_I wish my message could be given directly to my son but it seems that he has not yet returned. The master warned me that he can only accomplish this feat once and that he won't be able to stay with me so that you my son's son are the one I have to reach out to. I hope that you know enough to pass on this message to the one who needs it to stop the cycle. Adi is the only one who can break it. The difficulty of the task is one that can't be helped but no matter how hard it will be for Adi to accomplish, it needs to be done. The master tells me that when the time comes, he will help the boy remember enough to do what has to be done. Unfortunately, I can't even tell you where he will be or when. This information is hidden from me as is the means of what I believe to be my destruction, which, believe me, I will welcome as an immense relief. Hopefully you'll reach him in time so that this terrible curse might be ended once and for all. I will strive to hide the secret from my other half but I cannot promise it will work. You have to find a way to pass on the message even if we ever managed to kill you. I know it's a terrible burden and a strange one at that but if I ever did find you, my combined self wouldn't hesitate to destroy you to protect itself. That's why I have to give you this message in such a way. My master guides me in this and he will send the message to you, somehow. You have to believe every word of the message. As proof of my veracity, I am giving you an account of how your father truly lived and died. I'm begging you, save us._

When Heather looked up from her reading she saw that the story, if that's what it was, left all the people present speechless. "Well, what do you think?"

Agent Carson rallied before anyone else, including Harold. "It's even more elaborate than I had been led to believe...no wonder Jeremy tried to get it back."

"If any of that is for real," JT added, "I wouldn't mind having a talk with that Ezekiel, Emrys...whatever his name is."

"Myrddin Emrys," Harold corrected automatically.

"What?" Heather asked then.

Obligingly Harold explained, "Myrddin Emrys was actually the Welsh appellation of a man or wizard according to the story called..."

"Merlin!" Heather exclaimed. "You're saying that this whole thing is about Merlin and king Arthur?"

"Actually," Harold explained, "I believe all of this started back before we, as a species, even had a civilization to speak of."

"You do know that of all the crazy stuff we've heard today this takes the cake," Tess said in a voice that was still thick with skepticism. "Cat, what do you make of that?"

When no answer was forthcoming, Tess turned directly to her friend and partner but she saw right away that something was wrong. Both she and Vincent were still with them in body but their eyes were fixed on something that only they could see, as if they were stuck in some waking dream.

"Vince?" J.T called to his friend worriedly. "Vince wake up!" He tried again but to no avail. JT got up then, determined to shake Vincent awake but just as he was about to grab his arm agent Carson pulled him away forcefully.

"I don't think it would be a good idea to touch him right now," he told JT as a justification for his action.

"We gotta do something!" JT exclaimed impatiently. "Look at them they're catatonic!"

"Wasn't there something in the message about how this master was going to find a way to communicate with Vincent when the time came?"

"You can't really believe that can you?" JT, exasperated, moved once more toward his friend but he stopped short when he heard him talk in a language that was utterly different than anything he knew. "What's going on? Is he having a stroke?" This time, JT's voice betrayed heightened anxiety. So many disturbing things had happened during the past week, JT wondered if whatever change Vincent might've been undergoing could cause this but then again why were they both in the trance? Could they possibly all be faced with an entity that was responsible for all the weirdness he'd lived through for so many years? The tentative answer to that came when Catherine started shouting in a slightly cruder version of the language Vincent had used. In spite of the animation the speech told of however, both his friends remained locked in a trance. He stood there, poised to shake Vincent awake but in addition to the strangeness of the situation, he had an intuition that, were he to complete the move, something dreadful would happen.

"What are you waiting for? Help them!" Heather harangued him.

Still he hesitated, unsure why. But then, Tess reacted with her usual recklessness and she tried to grab Catherine's arm. She never made it. A brilliant flash of light originated from a point in mid-air just inches from Catherine. The light quickly flickered all around Catherine and Vincent, and then became a solid white orb of energy that hid everything inside. Meanwhile, Tess flew back and hit the far wall with a sickening thud. It had all happened so fast no one reacted for a long beat. Then JT shook himself out of the shock and sprang into action, fearing the worst for Tess.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter XIV

"What's going on?" Vincent asked tensely, staring in disbelief at his friends who were moving in a blur in and out of focus.

A voice seemingly coming from all around him answered him, "calm yourself Adi. Your friends are well."

Strangely Vincent wasn't surprised that the owner of the deep guttural voice knew his concern without asking. Neither was he startled when Catherine reacted to the voice.

"What have you done to them?" She shouted, evidently keeping together with great effort.

Instead of answering her directly the voice said, "you didn't change Irzu. Do not worry so. The master will bring you both back to your friends soon. He simply needs to address all of us one last time and this is the only way."

"What about," Vincent questioned while grabbing Catherine's hand as reassuringly as he could under the circumstances.

At that moment the dungeon disappeared as they were engulfed in a painfully bright light. Both Vincent and Catherine backed up at the same time only to find that the wall of light seemed to close in on them from all sides. Vincent pulled Catherine to him protectively but he admitted to himself at least that he didn't know what he could do if this was a threat. The next thing that came to his mind was how with that level of stress neither he nor Catherine had beasted out yet. Even as the light became one with them, the voice once again answered as if it read his mind. "You only think you're moving. In reality you're in stasis. Do not worry, everything is fine."

Catherine answered out loud, or at least Vincent thought she did. "Why are you doing this to us."

Stasis or not Vincent tightened his hold on her when he heard the panic in her voice. "It's gonna be ok Catherine," he tried to sound as confident as possible but even to him it didn't sound convincing.

Before she could reply the light seemed to swallow them whole.

The sensation of falling into the light was extremely disturbing but fortunately didn't last very long. However, it's when it stopped and they both tumbled forward that Vincent truly understood he had been quite immobile until now. It wasn't the only change that occurred. When he looked at Catherine, he saw that it was her but different in many ways, not the least of which the dirty fur garment she was now wearing and nothing else. Her hair seemed to have grown twice as long in an instant and was in serious need of attention. But then the way she looked at him Vincent guessed he might not look much better. In her eyes he could see all the questions she should've been asking and yet even as he watched, her expression grew dimmer. "Catherine?" He asked worriedly.

But Catherine didn't seem to find the words to answer.

"I must urge you not to worry. Irzu simply is the way she used to be before the Joban match." A different voice had spoken but this time it had come from behind him and although he should've been afraid at what he saw when he turned around, instead a warm feeling coursed through him, like seeing one's family after a long separation. And almost right away he knew that's exactly what it was. Behind him Catherine, or to be accurate, Irzu was glued to his back, obviously seeking protection from the newcomers. Vincent also knew instinctively that he should let her be for now. The same way he knew that even though his mind still believed he heard English, the truth was he most likely heard and spoke a language long dead. "Catherine isn't like that, what's the matter with her," he still asked of the beings who now stood in front of him. These were two very different beings and yet Vincent knew them to be his true family. The Joban called Lot was indeed a beast but he looked very different than even Vincent's other side. Lot was covered from head to toe with a short light grey fur, and his fangs were much longer than Vincent's. His face sported a kind of short snout but the features were otherwise almost human, if one ignored the cat like eyes with elongated pupils and a golden glow to them. The Joban didn't stand as tall as Vincent, mostly because his back was arched in a stance that made him appear ready to pounce at a moment's notice. The other notable thing about the Joban was that he wore an almost elegant leather outfit, adorned with trinkets that Vincent seemed to remember were mementos of sort Lot loved to show off like badges of honor. He also walked bare feet and fearsome claws were present on his toes as well as on his fingers. All in all, he looked like a humanoid fearsome feline.

Beside him stood another truly striking being, twice as tall as the Joban, his reptilian features and his size would've been frightening to any other, but somehow Vincent knew he had nothing to fear from him. Although the eyes shown almost the same golden light as Lot's, the almond shape of the pupil definitely were reptilian along with the fact that the eyes stood out from his skull unlike a mammals' but at the same time, they were facing forward obviously giving him a stereoscopic vision. Inside an elongated snout, his mouth filled with short serrated teeth, and was topped by flat slits serving as nostrils. The body shape was more that of a bipedal and the claws, on three fingers and a thumb like appendages, must've been long and sharp originally but at the moment they were cut short and obviously manicured. The being for all his alien appearance conveyed a sense of calm dignity that reassured rather than frightened. He wore a robe tied with a shiny sash like some Roman Patrician. "She's rather smart for the time, aren't you Irzu? It's simply that she is still intimidated by us and also her more advanced cognitive functions and let's call it sense of adventure…well those came with the Joban and without it, she reverted to a simpler version of herself. But again do not worry, as soon as you return to your time and place, her normal self will reassert itself."

"Why are we here?" Vincent asked as he took in his surrounding next. On three sides, he could see tall walls made of some sort of silver colored metal, one of which sported a large door made of the same material and an electronic panel he guessed was the opening mechanism. And behind the two beings, a corridor evidently led to some other parts of the installation. Again, a vague memory told him this was an antechamber to a compound, its entrance. There was no roof however, so it was more like a fortress than a contained space.

"Well, some of your people in the future call this place Atlantis…but really it's just a scientific installation. My people came here to observe yours and others on your planet," Ezekiel began, for that was the name Vincent now remembered he was known as. "But I…something happened and because of it, my outlook on the mission changed. First, as is often the case in scientific endeavors, we coming here changed the course of the evolution of your species. They were supposed to interact with other hominids and gain strength and all they needed to survive from it but we brought a species you know as beasts along with us and we made the mistake of letting them roam the land a long time ago."

"What?"

"It's complicated, please let me finish. They only did what they were meant to, which was to protect us from harm. They saw the other hominids as threats when these tried to attack our first installation and then they went on to decimate that branch of the hominids before we could stop them. Ever since they have been confined and it was fortunate we could save a good number of your particular species otherwise…well, the civilization you know of now wouldn't exist. The problem is, as you were then, your species was the weakest one, prone to disease and vulnerable to so many of the dangers of the time. An Ice age had already decimated all the hominids at any rate, which is how the beast literally caused the extinction of the others. I felt responsible for it so that, in spite of the protests of the others among my race, I took it upon myself to teach you and help you evolve a little faster. It would have taken thousands of years to do that but I still set to the task. My species you see, we live a very long time. So do the Jobans, which is why they come along on our scientific expeditions."

"So, you…evolved us…you made us beasts?" Vincent now remembered some of the tale they'd just heard back in the dungeon and a swelling of anger mounted in him. "You," he indicated Lot angrily, "you raped my mother!"

"I'm ashamed to say I did. But…at the time, I didn't have the same…cognitive abilities I do now. My shame is all the more now. Then, I only followed my instinct. The humans were just some animals that interested our master. In my defense, I took care of her. She even…liked me in time…But for my part, I was taking care of you. You were and are my child. And you forgave me back then…I'm not asking for that now. I only wanted to lay eyes on you one more time."

"Why?"

"We don't have much time," Ezekiel spoke instead, "As I was saying, I did help evolve your species, but mostly it was to bring them to your level at the time. The mix of the beast and the humanoid in you caused an accelerated evolution of your brain. When my brethren found out about you years later, and most of all, of what I had secretly done to your species, they were outraged and you've heard what they did in the story. I had to do something to complete my work and I feared they might intervene in that if I didn't do as they ordered but I couldn't accept the sacrifice they demanded. Through you I knew I had found a solution. You have to understand our science was well beyond that of even your most brilliant scientists. Although they are getting there… I saw an opportunity to do everything I had set out to do and save the beasts. At least, most of them. Other than Irzu however, I never forced the match on any human, I promise you that. For her I made an exception because she had to be inserted for your sake. The others, I offered long life, the same as your children, but even more so, an almost eternal life. I'll admit, as a selling point it was killer. Very few refused my offer. It took me eight thousand years to find the right matches for all of them but I had done fairly well until…until your father."

"You matched him with this Arturo?"

"Yes, at the time, I was convinced it was the perfect match and I needed him to be a leader of men and beasts alike since my time on this planet was coming to an end. It was a burden but I knew your father was up to the task and at the time I was convinced this Arturo was too. And for a long while, he was. He was convinced of his own rightfulness and nobleness, so much so that even Lot was duped and he was inside him…By the time everything went wrong, he and his knights had fought many battles already and pushed the Saxons back, beginning the process of creating this new nation I had hoped for. One that would usher peace and an atmosphere conducive to creating a better people... I should have known better but I was dying and after two other failures, one of which was of my own making, I was desperate."  
>"Two failures?<p>

"One was from very long ago. The very first civilization, even before your recorded history…Wars decimated your species then and I almost failed in my task at the time. After I managed to salvage humanity from that, they recovered and with my help spread around the globe, building many such civilizations, which fell and rose in time. I understood at one point that it was also part of your evolution and until the Romans, I let it happen. By then you had spread far and wide and your extinction as a species was only a remote possibility. But then, the Roman Empire was born, with some of the most ambitious leaders in human history. They did a lot of good, that's for sure, but in my eyes, they committed a terrible crime as well."

"What was that?"

"They found out about you and your kind like so many before them. Until then, humans had practically worshipped the land you walked on. They erected effigies to your likeness. They protected you and respected your kind and you returned it by protecting them as well. The Caesars however saw you as a threat to their reign and their claim of rightful deity. One of their early scientists found my compound, then abandoned for many thousand years. In there, they found written accounts of what occurred between these very walls. They couldn't really understand it all at first but pictograms helped them piece together a lot of it. More importantly, they found the collars and the gems. For many generations, you were hunted down by the roman soldiers, collared and made to fight in the arena. You were also treated as slaves and beasts of burden by the nobility. I kept hoping that things would change as their civilizations grew into a more peaceful and modern one. Unfortunately, inbreeding among the noble only birthed worse Caesars, with mental illnesses that caused them to do countless horrible things to others and even their own people. I became enraged and sought a mean to end their reign. I knew of another civilization who still venerated some of my beasts, the Saxons. I gave them reasons for their hoards to start invading the Roman lands and put an end to their tyranny. Of course history showed that my intervention only created a new threat. I then gave up altogether on both of them and was determined to start a new civilization from scratch. One that would have high ideals and moral grounds."

"Camelot…" Vincent interjected in an awed whisper.

"Yes, that's where it was going to start and did. But, as in all things, not everything worked out as planned. It did at first. I took a very hand's on approach to it, becoming this Emrys who counseled not only Arturo, but his father before him. I made sure the beasts who were the most loyal to me were all born in that new land, which was set on an island and soon to be liberated from the Roman rule. It was an unheard of convergence of beasts but I really believed I could control them with the help of my good friend Lot here and most of all without the help of that hated collar. To my relief, they took to my message. They became knights and their female mates stood by them, often fighting alongside them to liberate the land and begin to build the new world. Arturo became king and they were following him unfailingly, all the more so after the beast emerged in him. But then, the unthinkable happened. I had made an unanticipated mistake."

"The female beast…"

"Yes, and most of all, it revealed something else about Arturo that had remained hidden all those years. Up until that moment, he had everything he'd ever wished for. Power, women, respect from his men, a crown even. But the day he was refused is the day I understood the true nature of his humanity. He wasn't any better than the Caesars of old. What he couldn't have, he had to have. Maybe as Lot thinks, it has to do with the female beast, but I still believe Arturo is mostly to blame. The fact is that even before you showed up, he knew that Guinevere wasn't for him. She'd made it clear to him from the start but he wouldn't be dissuaded. Eventually, I figured this could only be because he hadn't been mated himself and I brought him a female who had lost her match a long time ago. Too long to explain why, but suffice to say, I thought they could as you say, hit it off and at first it looked like Arturo relented. But a few months later, he sent me on a long trip to negotiate the surrender of a Pict leader. I and a few of the knights set off on the trip, confident that things were going well back home. That's even when I finally encountered you on the way back from there, and brought you back to Camelot where you wanted to become a knight as well. When we arrived and I found out what Arturo had done, I was tempted to break the link on the spot, but I was only a few precious years from dying myself and I had to trust that things would work out. At first, I even believed you wouldn't act on your desire for the queen. I knew it was wishful thinking and that she would most likely have the same urges as yours soon, but she also stopped herself, barely. The worst of it is that Arturo felt it all along. Even as he befriended you, treated you like a brother, he knew. He reveled in his victory over your love as he saw it. He even tried to push Morgana on you but even though you pretended to like her you only had eyes for the queen.

He became so convinced of his power over both of you that one day he sent you both away, possibly another cruel attempt at hurting you, but what had to happen did. Once away from the others, you couldn't stop yourselves anymore and the rest is history."

"Ok," Vincent said when Ezekiel stopped his account. "But as fantastic a story as that may be, I don't see what it has to do with why we're here…"

"I seek to end a terrible cycle of jealousy and violence that started that day in Camelot. The only way to do this is," Ezekiel exhaled sadly at this. "Your father has to be removed from the man you call Jeremy."

"You mean killed?" Vincent questioned with a sudden and irrepressible dread at the thought.

"There is no other way. As long as this man possesses the memories your father caused him to have, he will go on with this cruel quest to destroy you both. He's a sick man inside. Eternity only served to perpetuate his hatred of you. And the worst part is that in doing what I promised your father, I upped the danger to you as well."

"How is that?"

"This Jeremy, then called Daniel Ddraig, he sensed me inside along with your father. He gleaned some of my knowledge from the merging and used it against you later on."

"How?"

"You have to understand that to make the hybrid beasts, I followed a model that was a viable one…you."

"Me?"

"All the beasts, including your mate are made following your genetic make up. They're not all the same of course, this would defy the purpose but they are based on the same sudden evolution that you exhibited. For years after I left their consciousness, Daniel went on researching what he had gleaned. He used some of that knowledge to find your mate's former incarnation before you did. This Clara, he found her before she was a beast and even had had the urge to find you as she always does.

At first he tried to woe her himself but even though she can't remember him something in her always recognises the monster in him. Call it intuition. Even with all my science I still haven't figured it out. As usual, Arturo wouldn't be dissuaded so easily so your new friends having hit an unexpected wall with you had another member of the family 'marry' her to keep him at bay...at the time, you had taken the cloth which I believe you did because deep down you did remember the last time you were alive just as you did very recently...Maybe you thought that avoiding any relationship would stop the hurt. However there's a built-in connection in yours and Irzu's makeup. Somehow, when I linked you, the bond you shared in that first life connected you at the quantum level. There's no point in you trying to stay apart. You'll always find her and she'll always find you. Before you ask, I didn't plan it like that, it was all you. At any rate, you found each other and your affair lasted almost two years before Clara gave birth to twin daughters. Afterwards you and her had heated arguments as to what you should do. Some of those arguments were witnessed by members of your community and served to condemn your own former self, William Keller.

But see, there lied the ultimate cruelty in Daniel's plan. He had never intended to kill either one of you himself. He never could in fact. Because of your father he was never able to kill you with his own hands. The closest he ever got was this recent attack on you. No, his plan was much worse. From what he'd gleaned of my science, he knew that he could make you into an uncontrollable beast by adding to your DNA a piece of his own and yours. You metabolized that first concoction fast but not fast enough. The poor beast that you became during that interval killed the one person in the world it loved the most."

"What?"

"Yes, I know that according to those newspapers your friend read, William claimed his innocence but it's simply that he couldn't face up to what he did and literally erased it from his mind. By then, he was half crazed with grief and even after being arrested with all the proofs leading to his guilt he never accepted it. The point is though, that he would never have done it without Daniel's intervention."

"And then," understanding suddenly descended on Vincent, "he did it again!"

"Yes, he did." This time it was Lot who sadly confirmed what Vincent had already guessed, "those experiments Jeremy and Catherine's mother were doing, they were all meant to perfect the poison he intended to give you. It was dumb luck that I found out you enlisted and pushed the timetable early."

"What?" Now Vincent turned completely to his father with a horrified expression, "You're responsible for all those deaths I caused?"

"Look, I didn't know what would happen then. All I knew was I couldn't stop it entirely. But I nudged Jeremy in your direction, whispering in his ears that if he should dose you early, you'd be all the more dangerous and maybe would be killed before you even got to your mate. I appealed to his jealousy and desire and it worked."

"But why?"

"Son, look at your mate, look deep inside of you. What is the worst thing you can think of could happen?"

Vincent knew right away. If he had been given that serum after he met Catherine, he might have killed her in a fit of rage as he had feared doing in the first place when she came to him.

"Was the serum faulty again? Why didn't I become an out of control beasts like the others?"

"You did at first, I'm sorry to say but because you're you, I knew in my heart that you would fight it and that given enough time, you would prove Jeremy wrong. And you did. But he still hopes to reawaken the full beast in you and that makes him very dangerous."

"He bit me but…"

"No, that was me. I had to heal you and connect you to me somehow, so that this could happen. And also, I knew that Jeremy would be all the more desperate to do this now that Catherine's beast emerged. He sensed her even before she did herself and came right at you in a rage, but now he is more dangerous because he's thinking straight."

"Why can't you just stop him?"

"Because, my son, right now you're talking to the 'me' that you knew, but inside that beast that Jeremy is, my self is mostly subsumed to his will. I only have moments where I manage to fight it but because all of this is mostly my fault, I abdicated to his will a long time ago. I caused him to want your mate so bad and because of that, you've suffered for far too long already. I want this to end, son."

"What do you expect me to do about it?"

Ezekiel took over, "truth be told, all you'll have to do is let me do the deed through you. I can only inhabit two people and the other one would be impractical for the purpose. That's why I needed to talk to you. I wish for you to allow me in."

"If I'm going to, as you say, let you in, I'd like to be sure it's only temporary...my body is crowded enough as it is."

Ezekiel contemplated Vincent for a long moment. "You trust me, don't you?"

"Hum..." was all Vincent uttered uncertainly. Then he added, "you're still asking me to be party to what amounts to murder."

"I am telling you, you're not killing me, son, you're freeing me. I was ready to go ten thousand years ago and after all this, death will be deliverance. I want to do this. I can't be hurting you or your mate anymore."

Still, Vincent hesitated. The last time he'd taken the law in his own hands, he'd almost lost himself and the one person that mattered to him the most. "I can't…"

"Are you afraid of what she's going to think of you?" Ezekiel wondered.

"Not just that…I'm afraid that I won't be able to turn back this time. The last time I was really angry but it was still wrong of me to even think of killing in revenge. This time, you're asking me to commit cold blooded murder and I won't do that."

"So be it," Ezekiel replied even as he waved his hand dismissively. Immediately the light that had engulfed Vincent and Catherine before returned and the strange sensation of falling through it returned with it.

But instead of being back in the dungeon as Vincent had expected, he instead found himself facing the very man they had just been debating. They were sitting in some small living room. An old looking radio stood on a small table in the corner. The wallpaper and wainscoting also had an old fashion aspect to them. Looking around nervously, he couldn't see Catherine anywhere. "You see," Jeremy was saying, "the delivery system was simple and elegant…now you're done for and I'm going to enjoy this. Vincent realized he was holding a glass of brandy, near emptied and without needing being told, he knew whatever he had been given was in that glass. The other odd thing was that Jeremy sported a very different hair cut than before, his hair was shorter but also parted in a way that had gone out of fashion years ago. His clothes were also dated but otherwise he was the same man.

"Yes, I see you got it now. I verified myself that it was odorless. There's nothing you can do," Jeremy said as he got up. "I'll leave you now."

"What did you do," Vincent finally reacted, but just then, he knew he wasn't the one who spoke. He was more like a spectator in his own body. Instead of answering him, Jeremy smiled coldly before leaving the room and soon the house as Vincent heard the front door opening and closing. Confusion filled him until the first twinge of rage began mounting in him. A knock on the door seemed only to exacerbate the anger that threatened to overwhelm him and he controlled himself only at great cost. The visitor apparently didn't bother waiting for an answer and she came in. There was no mistaking that scent and the way she moved. "Catherine, go away," he tried to say. But what he heard is "what are you doing here?"

"Come on William," a very different Catherine replied as she entered the small living room. "We have to make a decision."

For a moment, Vincent wondered if it was another of those dreams he was having but even accounting for the vividness of the last one, this felt utterly real.

"I told you, I can't just drop everything because you want to make things official. And that's final!" He almost screamed.

Catherine obviously thought something was wrong because she displayed a confused expression. "But you said…I thought you were seriously thinking about it?"

"You married another one, now live with it."

"What's the matter with you? You know it was just convenience. You never worried about it before!"

"Well I lied! Now leave before I do something I'll regret."

"William, please…what's the matter?" As she said so, she moved toward him, worry and a little fear showing on her pretty face, but the man called William wouldn't be mollified. Instead his rage reached a peak Vincent remembered only too well. Only then did he understand where he was and what he was seeing and an almost animal cry escaped his lips but truly only played in his mind. He tried to escape the feeling that was raging in him but there was nothing he could do. As he had guessed, the events playing out in front of him were indeed a memory. And once again, he could feel all of it, including the horror he felt when the beast finally released its hold on him and he saw Catherine, lying at the edge of a forested area, her torso ripped to shreds by claws. Her eyes now fixed in death seemed to look upon him with more surprise than fear and that was the worst of it. Mercifully the bright light took him again and he fell on the concrete floor of the dungeon instead of the compound he had expected to be returned to. Tears of grief ran down his cheeks unbidden. The worse part however was when he turned and looked into Catherine's eyes. The expression of utter confusion and disappointment in them told him that he hadn't been the only one in the dream like state. "I'm sorry…I'm so sorry," he pleaded.

Behind Catherine, he saw JT kneeling besides Tess who looked barely conscious. He could smell blood on her but couldn't see from where until he noticed traces of blood on the wall above them both. A sudden renewed and more present fear was now rising in him. "What happened?"

Catherine, alerted by the question along with the sudden change in Vincent's attitude turned to see her friend lying there and she forgot for the time being the awful memories that had come to her only moments earlier. "What happened," she repeated, also worrying that she might be responsible for her friend's injury.

Heather exclaimed, "Catherine, you're alright!"

"Define alright…what's going on? What happened to Tess?"

"There was this bright light and she got zapped! And then you were here."

"How long?"

"What do you mean how long?"

"How long were we gone?" Vincent questioned in turn.

"We don't know that you were really. The light…it was all around you and then it wasn't anymore and there you were, falling on the floor."

"How long," Catherine asked again.

"Only a few seconds," Heather finally answered. "Why? And also, what was that?"

"Later," Catherine countered impatiently. "How is she," she asked, going to JT's and Tess side and kneeling as well. "I'm gonna be ok," Tess answered herself, although her voice was strangled. "Just a bad bump on the head…but you know how hard that head of mine is…"

"Don't move," JT insisted when Tess tried to get up. "We have to get you to a hospital."

Vincent finally managed to chase the cobwebs left by the dream and went to them. "Let me examine her, JT."

"Yeah be my guest," JT agreed gratefully. He could barely tear himself away from Tess to allow Vincent by however.

"I'm gonna need some space JT. It'll be alright."

After a thorough examination, Vincent sighed with some relief. "Yeah, like you said, seems it's just a big bump on the head, nothing broken. But still, you really should go to a hospital for observation."

"I'll be fine," Tess started but a wave of dizziness stopped her attempt at getting up. "In a bit," she finished in a little voice, lying back down.

Agent Carson approached them then, "may we offer our assistance? Harold and I would be happy to drive Tess to the nearest hospital. If, of course, she can be moved?"

"Yes, I don't see why not," Vincent answered. "But we don't need you for that."

"Yeah, I'm not going anywhere with the creepy agent," Tess protested weakly.

"Tess, remain calm…" Catherine said while turning worried eyes towards her.

"I'm afraid nobody is leaving just yet," a familiar voice interrupted then.

Matthew stood in the doorway, a gun ostensibly aimed straight at Vincent's chest.

"Matthew, what are you doing?" Heather exclaimed incredulously. She took a few steps towards him but Matthew waved the gun vaguely in her direction and she stopped cold in her tracks. "Matthew," she almost shouted.  
>"I'm sorry, babe…I never meant for this to get this far. But Jeremy…he opened my eyes. They want to kill him. He hasn't done anything to them and yet, he knows they're after him. All of them," he added nervously, gesturing to encompass all present.<p>

"You think I want to do that too?" Heather asked, taking another cautious step forward.  
>"I don't know," Matthew said. "You believe you're her family so…"<p>

"I am! Cat is my sister. What are you on about?"

Catherine stood suddenly, "Yeah, what the hell? And frankly, you don't know jack about your Jeremy."

"I know he took care of my family when we needed it. My mother trusted him. And as far as family is concern, you're no more her sister than I am. Don't you know that?"

Heather was about to protest but deep down, she had begun to have doubts as well. Not that it mattered in the grand scheme of things. In her heart, Catherine was still every bit her sister and that's why after a beat she replied, "I don't care what you think. I really didn't know you at all! You're as bad as this Jeremy. You lied to me about everything! You said you had no family!"

"They're the monsters! Jeremy was right! They killed my mother," Matthew shouted, ignoring Heather's rightful anger.

The last part struck everyone like a hammer. "Your mother…?" Catherine finally questioned uncertainly.

"Yeah!" Matthew screamed angrily, "she went to see you after Jeremy told her about you. And you just ripped her to shreds!"

"She attacked us," Vincent protested vehemently. "We didn't want to hurt her!"

Agent Carson slowly moved toward Matthew, while this one was focusing on Vincent.

"Easy for you to say now that she can't tell us anything," Matthew retook his aim and pointed the gun at his forehead, "Try regenerating from that!" Just as he was about to pull the trigger, Vincent feinted and blurred toward him even as Agent Carson jumped on him and threw his gun arm wide, the bullet hitting a far wall harmlessly. Vincent tore the gun out of Matthew's hand, throwing it far from him and he threw the man on the floor forcefully, holding him there by the throat. "Now, if you would calm down…"

"Go ahead, do your worse," Matthew taunted, obviously even more distraught than they had assumed. Vincent slowly released him, "I have no intention of hurting you, no more than we intended to hurt this Rachel. I'm sorry, alright. I'm very sorry," Vincent added sincerely. "We only defended ourselves."

"Vincent didn't do anything to her, Matthew. I killed her."

"Catherine, it's ok," Vincent protested.

"No, I'm sorry it happened, but I didn't have a choice. I don't know what Jeremy told her…but she attacked me and she intended to kill me. Also, if Jeremy has a beef with us, let him come himself."

Matthew seemed to waver at last. He stood up on unsteady legs, and turned to Catherine, "I…ok…I'm the first to admit that my mother…she wasn't the most reliable person…but she was my mother!"

"And I'm so sorry," Catherine reiterated. "I wish I could undo it but I swear to you, I didn't have a choice."

She was about to try talking to him some more but all her senses suddenly went on alert and she turned to the doorway expectantly, her eyes already glowing. Vincent almost immediately followed suit. Unfortunately, they didn't react fast enough. Matthew who had been standing closest to the doorway suddenly emitted a humph of utter surprise, while his eyes opened a little too wide. That's when Heather screamed at the top of her lungs when she saw a clawed fist appear in the middle of Matthew's torso and retract, leaving a bloody hole straight through his back. Already technically dead, Matthew still managed to extend his arm halfway towards Heather but then he collapsed before finishing the movement. Behind him, stood Jeremy, one hand holding bloodied entrails, the other a large caliber gun aimed at Catherine. "Well, you wanted me? Here I am."


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter XV

"How could you do this?" Catherine exclaimed still in shock at the sight and at what she knew would be Heather's worse nightmare for years to come…if they survived this day.

"Oh this," Jeremy replied with an amused expression that chilled all present, "the gutless, spineless little ass was gonna turn on me. I'm not fond of traitors…as you may or may not remember. No matter…"

"You killed him," Heather finally found her voice. She was shaking all over, her eyes fluttering from the form of her husband on the floor to the gun in Jeremy's hands.

Jeremy ignored her and instead turned his full attention to Catherine and Vincent who were still in between state of beings. "I suggest we all calm down…Who knows, some of you could get out of here alive if these two retract their claws right now…"

With a mighty effort both Catherine and Vincent returned to human forms but they remained hyper vigilant, particularly that Heather was becoming aggressive as well as distraught. "Catherine how can you let him get away with it? KILL HIM! He killed Matthew! He's a monster!"

"Tell your little sister to shut the hell up or I'll do it my way," Jeremy threatened.

"Heather," Catherine warned softly, "please get back here."

Either Heather finally realized what she was facing or Catherine's admonition had an effect on her. Either way, she took a few steps back, getting closer to Tess and JT who were watching all this in numb shock themselves. Agent Carson stood back as well, ostensibly standing in front of Harold, who Vincent realized, was fiddling with something. For a moment he hoped Harold could do to Jeremy what he'd done to him weeks earlier but unfortunately, Jeremy was on to him. "Harold, if you think you're faster than I am…I suggest you rethink it."

Harold looked up from what he was doing with a fearful expression.

"Harold has nothing to do with any of this," Vincent called to Jeremy, "leave him alone."

"Just as long as he keeps his toys to himself, we'll have no problem…well not with me anyway…"

"What the hell do you mean?" Vincent asked angrily. He feared he knew what this was about.

Indeed, Jeremy unceremoniously dumped the offal he'd still been holding like some macabre trophy and he produced a syringe filled with amber liquid.

"Seems the first time didn't take…Who knows, maybe you can fight this one too…There's my proposal. You take it and chance being able to resist its effects and I'll get Catherine out of here before it all goes to hell…If you don't…well, you won't have to worry about killing a few of them. I'll start with the screamer here," Jeremy turned his aim squarely towards Heather. "Your choice, boy..."

"What is he talking about," Heather shakily asked. "What is that?"

"That, little girl, is super beast in a bottle, so to speak. The last time I gave that to your sister's boyfriend, he didn't disappoint at first. He killed quite a few soldiers and even a few civilians before he got his wits back. But as they say…third time is a charm. So, what's it gonna be, Vincent? You got one chance to not go ballistic. I'd like to see you try anyway…"

"Vincent…" Catherine didn't know what more to say. On the one hand, she couldn't watch her sister die in front of her, most likely for nothing since Jeremy would just move on to threaten someone else until Vincent relented. On the other, if he did take it, they probably would all die anyway. This was a lose, lose situation, unless…

"Catherine, I need you to say yes," Vincent said as if he'd read her mind.

"What?" Jeremy questioned with a cruel amused expression, "You can't make your own decision? Some beast you are!"

"Catherine?" Vincent insisted, ignoring the taunt.

Catherine only hesitated a moment. She couldn't be sure any of what they saw had been real or if they were too late to get help from that strange being, but it was obviously their only chance. "Yes…"

The effect was immediate and took Vincent by surprise even though he'd been asking for it. He never even had to utter his agreement. Suddenly he was only a witness to his own body's actions. Without hesitation, Ezekiel took over, blurred in front of Heather and as the bullet left the gun he threw her down, only narrowly avoiding being hit himself.

Then without waiting, he went to face Jeremy, who was trying to beast out but somehow couldn't summon his other half even as Ezekiel grabbed the gun from his hand and threw it away. "Don't even think about it Arturo, my 'old friend'…Lot is not gonna fight his master."

"Emrys," Jeremy uttered the words in a fearful whisper. "How?" In shock, Jeremy dropped the syringe, which went rolling under the table.

"The how is not that important, Arturo. The why is…You're a disappointment my boy. And I'll admit my hesitation in ending your reign back then makes me just as culpable, but no longer."

"You can't do anything to me. You'll kill your favorite pet!" Jeremy taunted but with a less than confident attitude.

"As a matter of fact, my friend," Ezekiel said as he seemed to tower over the other man, "my 'pet' as you call him would consider it a badge of honor if he could tear you apart limb from limbs from the inside out. He always enjoyed badges of honor too…" A somewhat cruel smile played over Ezekiel's lips.

The two men then stared each other down.

JT watched this in utter astonishment. "Catherine, what's going on? What's with Vincent?

"Later JT…"

Jeremy apparently couldn't hold it anymore, "What you do you think you're gonna accomplish here. You think you'll scare me into being a good boy? Even if you stop me now, you made me into what I am and I will return."

"No…you won't," Ezekiel calmly replied. In a blur, his hands encircled Jeremy's neck, who was now helpless without the recourse of his beast to defend himself.

Catherine braced herself for the inevitable, knowing that the aftermath would be painful for the both of them because of the gravity of their choice. However, instead of snapping Jeremy's neck as she had expected Ezekiel to do, a strange light encircled them both for a short moment and then, it seemed to flow upward and vanish into thin air. In the next moment both Jeremy and Vincent fell to the floor like puppets who's strings have suddenly been cut.

"Vincent," Catherine exclaimed, running to him in fear. She heard his heart slow but steady in his chest with a sigh of relief but it took a few moments before he opened his eyes again and Catherine had a renewed fear of what might linger inside of him.

"Catherine?" He whispered hoarsely.  
>"Are you ok," she asked nervously.<p>

"Yes…Yeah I'm ok. But…"

They both turned their attention toward Jeremy, who was still lying on the floor but was giving signs of reviving. Vincent quickly got to his feet and placed himself protectively in front of Catherine. "What's going on?"

"You're asking me?" Jeremy's voice seemed somewhat lower than it had been but otherwise he was unchanged. Except for the fact that instead of the hatred he had demonstrated earlier, the man just then getting to his feet was looking down at himself in apparent awe. "I can't believe it…"

"What," Vincent asked again, but somehow he sensed something fundamentally different about the man standing in front of him. First of all, he was no longer a beast at all.

"I'm human…" the man uttered incredulously. "That joker!"

"Father?" Vincent questioned hesitantly…

The man seemed unsure if he should be laughing or crying. A tear, presumably of joy, ran down his cheek as he stared at Vincent. "My son!"

Without any more hesitation, Jeremy grabbed Vincent and held him in a bear hug, obviously trembling with barely contained emotions. "I don't believe it…"

"Neither can I," Vincent uttered uncertainly, a little wary of Jeremy's sudden display of affection. "What happened?"

"I'm not sure…the master…Ezekiel, I think he was ready to wash his hands off you. But then, I tried to explain. It wasn't easy, son. My kind, we don't…well, mercy is rare among my kind. But you taught me that a long time ago. That we could all coexist and accept each other and…that killing was wrong. I guess I got through to him somehow…"

"But didn't he just kill this Arturo in a way? Or is he still there?" Catherine took an involuntary step back. The memory of what they had been shown was a little too fresh.

"In a way he did kill him…but what he really did was simply to bring him back to the last battle I ever fought as King…"

"And will he…?" Vincent tentatively began to ask but he was almost afraid of the answer.

"No he won't come back. And neither will I…this is my last life and I'm content with this. Besides, I've apparently kept a little side benefit."

"Which is?"

"Great longevity…another little gift from Ezekiel, I'm guessing. Bless him wherever he is."

"How can you be sure of that," Agent Carson interjected.

"I'm fifty-six and look at me!"

Indeed the man didn't look a day over thirty, if that. But then, he saw his bloody hand and his joy vanished. "That poor boy, I couldn't stop Jeremy."

All turned to the body of the boy who'd done nothing except listening to bad advice from a monster and paid the ultimate price for it. Heather was already kneeling near him, touching his face gingerly. Tears were running free and she wasn't trying to wipe them. Catherine's heart went to her sister and she knelt beside her, cradling her in her arms eventually.

"I hate to bring this up now," Agent Carson said then, "but I believe we can offer our services for the disposal of the body." He stopped a moment when he saw the look on Vincent and Catherine's faces but they didn't say anything. "I'm sure you understand that it is a necessary step. We'll concoct a story and make sure it sticks. Meanwhile, we need to remove the remains…"

Heather stared at the agent with open contempt for a long moment but Catherine hugged her tighter, trying to convey that no one here was disrespecting her former lover. A little nod was all she gave agent Carson and he took it as assent. "I'll make the arrangement immediately. Meanwhile, Vincent, we'll have to discuss your future duties…"

"Duties? Hey, we haven't even dealt with Catherine's situation yet. Your little agency can wait a little longer."

"I don't think you understand. Although we will ask for your help, I was referring to your duties as the new, let's say, representative for the beasts."  
>"What?"<p>

"Yeah, son. Jeremy was only kept around because many of the beasts considered him leader of the pack. In a way, you just defeated him and that's pretty much how it works for us… I know you've always been a lone gun but…I'm afraid you are gonna have to occasionally take care of some beast business in the future. Hopefully, a long and fruitful one…"

"Why can't you just do it? You're still this Jeremy."

"No beast will abide to the edict of a mere human, son. See that was the other reason Jeremy was after you. As the man who took his queen, you also in a way took his crown…"

"Rah Rah," JT interjected laughingly, "Long live King Vincent."

Vincent threw a venomous stare at his friend. "That's very inappropriate, JT."

"Hey, just saying," JT still went on with an amused smile.

"No matter, we don't have to do anything about it just yet. For now, I think you should take care of your injured friend and we should also take your other friend in for a thorough exam."

"What the hell do you mean?"

Harold took over for that one, "Seems like you were all so busy, you haven't noticed that JT here hasn't slept in what? Five, six days?"

"What?" Vincent exclaimed, staring at JT worriedly.

"I feel fine," JT protested.

"Maybe so, but your body cannot take much more of this. If we don't do anything, you will simply shut down. The nanos can only do so much. If you come with us, we'll see to it you're good as new."

"I'm not going with those clowns and I certainly am not leaving Tess right now." JT said categorically. However, Tess took his hand his hers and got his full attention.

"If you don't do this, I might lose you and I won't have it…I'll be fine and you better be too. We got some living to do…"

JT stared deeply into her eyes before answering, "If you want me to."  
>"I definitely do and if those clowns as you call them do anything wrong to you, they'll have to answer to me," Tess growled in Harold and Agent Carson's direction.<p>

"We stand warned," the latter replied calmly.

Agent Carson pulled his phone and headed out to call for help and meanwhile, Harold pulled a small device from his vest pocket. Apparently the very device he had been fiddling with earlier.

He approached Catherine a little shyly with it. "Miss…"

"You can call me Catherine," this one interjected.

"Catherine," Harold said with a small smile, "I have a little something for you…"  
>"What's that?"<p>

"Well, we know that you have a high pressure job…and as…what you are now, it would be difficult to deal on occasions."

"Yes…?"

"Well, I've demonstrated another version of this device to your boyfriend recently."

For his trouble, he got a not too friendly stare from Vincent at this. "Not too worry," he added quickly, "this is a better version of it. I planned to give you this all along. With it, the worst of your…symptoms, if you will won't be apparent to anyone. It won't change you in any way, just attenuate the effects enough so that if you'd like…"  
>"You mean I can still be a detective?" Catherine's face brightened suddenly in spite of all the hardship they had faced. "For real?"<p>

"So does that mean I get my partner back now?" Tess questioned.

"Wait a minute," Vincent put in. "I seem to remember a sabbatical." But then he saw the look on Catherine's face and he relented, "I guess vacation is over…"

Catherine went to him with a soft smile playing on her lips. Lifting herself up to him she drew him into a deep kiss. "Vacation may be over, but the rest of our lives just started," she whispered against his lips as she pulled away slightly. In that instant the whole world could have disappeared and they wouldn't have noticed.


End file.
